The Emirates Green Building Council (EmiratesGBC) has chosen nine priority areas that will govern its activities in 2018. The independent councils’ board of directors approved the priority areas, which are in line with the UAE Vision 2021 National Agenda and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The target priorities that the council selected are: building retrofit training; benchmarking/building efficiency accelerator; technical publications; Emirates Coalition for Green Schools; green key; annual awards; outreach & awareness; membership; nZeb Centre of Excellence.
“EmiratesGBC has set our nine priority areas of 2018 after closely examining the UN SDGs and UAE’s 2021 Vision to establish how we can contribute to the global sustainability agenda as well as the UAE’s national priorities. For this reason, each of EmiratesGBC’s priority areas is aligned with a relevant SDG to create a more targeted impact,” said Saeed Al Abbar, chairman of EmiratesGBC.
As part of the UN’s 2030 Development Agenda, the SDGs play a critical part as they emphasise sustainable and environmentally conscious social and economic development targets. Several of the SDGs also promote responsible, energy efficient, sustainable building practices that support environmental conservation by reducing reliance on high energy and water consumption.
Similarly, one of the target areas of the UAE’s Vision 2021 agenda is the ‘sustainable environment and infrastructure’ pillar, which focuses on preserving natural resources, increasing the contribution of clean energy and building an energy-efficient, smart city infrastructure that is environmentally-friendly. In line with this, the UAE has already taken several steps in recent years to build a green economy for sustainable development in line with this vision.
Al Abbar added, “We are living during a critical time for humanity. Our natural resources are being depleted and with a fast-growing global population, we must think long-term – especially for future generations who have the right to inherit a sustainable, clean world. Our work, and practices today are extremely important, and as we promote sustainable, energy-efficient building practices one building at a time, we are making a significant impact. The forward-looking green vision of the UAE is also an immense boost to EmiratesGBC’s agenda, and we are confident that 2018 will be a remarkable year for us.”