Creating sustainable buildings and cities is capturing real-estate developers’ interest lately, noting that sustainability takes into consideration 3 different dimensions: economic (Efficiency, lower prices and better quality services), social (CSR, health and safety) and environmental (water, energy and waste management). The best example of sustainable city is Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, the world’s first Zero-Carbon city.
According to the World Green Building Council, a “green building” is defined as being efficient in terms of energy (20%-50% lower cost), water (-40%) and natural resources usage. The “green building” should be less waste producer granting healthier location for people living inside. In order to evaluate buildings’ performance in the sustainability conception, several countries shaped their own systems of assessment besides the international systems such as Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED, U.S system) and Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM, U.K system). In Lebanon, the ARZ Building System has been introduced by the Lebanon Green Building Council (LGBC) in cooperation with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in order to support and adopt sustainable building techniques.
BLC Headquarters building was the first ARZ rated building to be awarded with the ARZ Bronze Certificate for its credible score in green building. According to Jones Lang LaSalle report, 1200 projects were certified by LEED in the MENA region, of which more than 65% or 802 projects were concentrated in the UAE.
Qatar came second with 173 projects and was followed by KSA and Lebanon that ranked third and fourth with 145 and 25 LEED projects, respectively. Several Lebanese LEED-certified projects were established in the past few years with diverse usages and purposes. In this context, Lebanon became the 5th country to implement the LEED for Neighborhood development through the District //S project at Saifi, Beirut.
In addition, the International College (IC) elementary school is the first LEED certified school in the country. Beirut Terraces (BCD) and Verdun Heights (Verdun) gained certifications from LEED on the residential level, while Beirut Harbor (Saifi) and Palladium (Bab Idriss) on the office property side. Beirut Marina and the adjacent Zaitunay Bay are also two projects that respect the LEED system inquiries.
The Lebanon Brief
9 September
