Saudi Arabia’s sustainable construction market is predicted to reach a value of $406bn by 2015, driven by the Kingdom’s extensive development of technologies and continually high industry activity.
“The sheer size of Saudi Arabia’s construction sector makes it a very influential market in promoting green building technologies and sustainable development in the region,” said Ziyad Al-Rukban, assistant general manager at Riyadh Exhibitions Company.
“The government’s proactive efforts to encourage and provide incentives to developers and contractors that adopt green building practices have already generated strong interest worldwide,” he added.
One such international company pursuing extensive R&D in the country is Dow Chemical, which has its own laboratory at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).
When I visited KAUST for the first time I was blown away by the level of their equipment and academic partners,” said R&D developer for EMEA, Dr Wiltrud Treffenfeldt.
“We are beginning to ramp up our collaborations with academia partners such as KAUST more and more, as we build relationships with university management. What I find is that the leaders of KAUST are very much supporting us because we are one of their first partners and we are now introducing more of our global R&D leaders to screen for more potential collaboration projects with the academic partners,” she added.
Dr Treffenfeldt talks in detail about Dow’s activities at KAUST and the regional development of construction chemical regulations in November issue of Big Project Middle East.