Construction Business News ME speaks with sustainability experts to discuss the role of greenwashing in Middle East’s construction industry
What do you think is the state of the green construction industry in the Middle East today?
Al Abbar: The green construction industry has grown significantly in the Middle East in recent years. There is an increasing knowledge and understanding of which green materials, processes, equipment and systems are beneficial to projects in terms of water saving and energy efficiency.
Today, we see significant strides being taken in the region to promote energy-efficiency in the built environment. Authorities throughout the GCC are increasingly implementing regulations and rating systems that are setting high standards for new construction projects and throughout the industry.
We have also noticed an increasing number of experts as well as test or pilot projects in the region to support research and enhance the knowledge and confidence of the authorities and the industry. Masdar City and Qatar’s Passivhaus project are good examples of the commitment of the authorities to green buildings. In addition, there is a strong positioning by the local GCC or MENA Green Building Councils to support the authorities and the construction industry to get greener.
In the UAE particularly, a focus on sustainability has become part of the country’s philosophy, regulations, standards and practices. The importance of green building in the country is evident. A rising number of green buildings are LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and Estidama Pearl certified, not only to align with government regulations but also driven by voluntary decisions from developers, contractors and other parties involved.
Along with this increased interest within the industry, we have witnessed the creation of more sustainable building awards, as well as a stronger impact and exposure of frameworks and reporting systems like the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the UN Global Compact, which promote the use of sustainability reporting as a way for organisations to become more sustainable and contribute to sustainable development.
COLACO: Contractors, suppliers and supply chain in most Middle East countries are slowly becoming aware of the green requirements. They are now better connected with international sources of green products, equipment and supplies due to popularity of both international green rating systems like LEED, and government green building regulations such as EHS Trakhees of Dubai, Abu Dhabi’s Estidama, Dubai Municipality, Qatar’s GSAS, Saudi GBC and Kuwait GBC.
There are still those who follow conventional practices either knowingly or out of ignorance and camouflage it through shallow, unsubstantiated, self-stated claims.
Absence of a unified green criterion between different rating systems and authorities has led to confusion in the construction industry as to products green compliance for specific projects.
AL RASHEDI: The UPC have monitored a lot of successful sustainable projects from inception to completion in recent years. Along the journey, as our programme has matured, we have seen projects make mistakes, lessons learned, and implementation of those learnings gradually improve the end result.
The green construction industry is improving and constantly evolving as new technologies emerge. For this reason I think the green industry is strong with an increasing client awareness of potential energy cost savings being the driving factor.
Greenwashing is the practice of overpromising or misleading on the beneficial green effects products or services will provide. Based on this definition, do you think greenwashing exists extensively in the Middle East market? Could you give us generic examples of the same?
COLACO: Greenwashing is indeed prevalent in the Middle East market. The most common examples would be
- Supplier claims his paper products are “recyclable” when requirement calls for “recycled” paper products;
- Owner claims he saved 15% of energy, when actually the reduction was due to lower AC consumption due to cooler weather compared to previous year;
- Product flyers depicting exaggerated claims such as company X’s LED lamps provides total of twenty LEED points when actually LED alone cannot reach the threshold levels required to achieve all the available points under the stated credit categories;
3) Experts in the US say the problem of greenwashing is endemic in the green construction industry and is likely to get worse. Do you agree? How should it be addressed?
COLACO: Greenwashing in some form or the other will always be around. The challenge is how to filter and expose bad apples from good ones. Responsibility lies collectively with owners, developers, sustainability specialists and authorities.
Owners and developers should rely on third party consultants and specialists with proven track record. Have in place an implementation strategy at the outset to facilitate an effective transition between design, construction, fit-out and operation stages. Construction documents should spell out sustainability requirements in sufficient details. An effective monitoring and approval process will ensure that right products and practices are procured, implemented and commissioned. Tenant fit put packages should have similar clauses making it mandatory for tenants to comply with sustainability requirements.
Measurement and verification protocols and re-commissioning requirements should be adhered to by operators and facility managers to maintain the ongoing sustainability of the development.
Local authorities such as UAE’s ESMA and Dubai’s DM can play an important role in certifying the environmental attributes and claims of green products.
A robust review mechanism by the authorities over the life cycle of the development, coupled with trainings and awareness programmes, will minimise green washing.
AL ABBAR: I don’t think greenwashing is an endemic to the construction industry. The perception that building green is more expensive continues to prevail. This needs to be tackled with education, trainings, workshops, etc. to prevent it from posing difficulties to the growth of green building and further move towards a more sustainable industry.
AL RASHEDI: In my opinion, the ‘green’ label is often overused, and without context, i.e why is this product or service being labelled green? It is added to products and services, as an add-on which may not be warranted. This can be misleading. The best method of addressing concerns is by questioning and assessing proposals with greater detail. Clients and consultants are now becoming more informed of green products and services. The preparation of a concise set of project or client requirements can be used as a measure for any proposals. This will quickly identify what is being exaggerated and is not required. The difficulty arises when a new product or new service is announced; this is an unknown and must be examined carefully. When examining problems it is important to consider the successes which will far outweigh the problems.
Graeme Sharpe, P.E. LEED AP, in his article Greenwashing the construction industry writes ‘Greenwashing just thinly disguised consumerism and poorly conceived advertisement’. Do you think that’s true? Could you elaborate how greenwashing and consumerism is related in this day and age?
AL RASHEDI: I don’t think it’s true but I can see how the relation is made. The requirement for projects to be the first at achieving certain green goals, targets or practices can be linked to consumerism. Combining products and services to be unique may be counterproductive as technologies and green practices overlap. The results, however, can be over-engineered and energy consuming, rather than cleverly energy efficient. Combining products can be seen as greenwashing, where a service or product A is provided on the basis, that you also need additional services or products B and C, to get maximum efficiency from service or product A.
COLACO: I think it is true. Let’s take LED lamps for example, recently quality LED lighting had an efficacy of 80-90 lumens/watt. End-users started replacing conventional lights with the expensive LEDs. In no time LED development now has resulted in efficacies way above 100-lumens/watt with suppliers tempting end-users to upgrade their LED installations even before the investment in the previous LED retrofit has been recovered.
There is a possibility that consumers of sustainability products may have to face the same issues which confront the IT industry i.e. products becoming obsolete literally at the blink of an eye leaving the once high esteemed consumer disappointed.
Could you give a rough percentage on how many companies you think are greenwashing in the regional construction industry? Why do you think these companies resort to greenwashing?
COLACO: It is difficult to put an absolute percentage. A more important measure would be the degree to which companies engage in greenwashing, and this varies from company to company. Most companies would have an assortment of products each with varying degrees of compliance to environmental attributes.
Many of the green products and services come at a cost premium. There is also the issue of long lead times as some of these products need to be imported. Last but not least, there is still a lack of awareness of green practices and understanding of green specifications among consultants, suppliers and contractors. With ever increasing growth in construction and so many companies competing for business, cramped project timelines, tight budgets and eagerness of end users to project them as green, greenwashing is unlikely to be eliminated but can only be minimised.
In a scenario where a developer is looking for a ‘green’ contractor, how do you recognise services that are greenwashed?
COLACO: Contractors can be judged based on their track record in green projects. Contractors who align themselves with specialist sustainability consultants or have experienced personnel with the required sustainability experience are likely to deliver green projects as intended. Contract becomes an important tool for the developer to specify and enforce the green requirements. Appointment of third party independent commissioning agent and sustainability consultant by the developers to specify, verify, validate and report the consultants and contractors claims will mitigate greenwashing to a large extent.
AL RASHEDI: Companies must be able to demonstrate a holistic approach, an entire company structure with key personnel provided to deliver project requirements. Sustainable companies must provide cost and energy options to prospective clients, and if a prequalification is returned with no questions or suggestions, in my opinion it wouldn’t indicate foresight or an intent to deliver a sustainable service to the client.
8) What role does green consultancies play in this scenario? Are they key to finding the right way to transform?
AL ABBAR: Consultancies with dedicated sustainability teams can support and guide each stakeholder in order to making the right or reasonable choices that ensure a project meets its sustainability targets. They can help decide what stakeholders should be involved and provide support with the commissioning process. They can also offer advice on design, materials and equipment, as well as on what processes and policies should be observed to ensure compliance with regulations and rating systems.
AL RASHEDI: Consultants are key, but clients need to be able to place their full trust in the consultant.
Does certifications such as LEED help avoid green washing? How important is certification, and how does it the construction industry?
AL ABBAR: It is important to note that a building can be sustainable and incorporate green best practices without having a certification behind it. Certifications, however, are useful tools for measurement and can serve as guidelines for best practice.
Green building rating systems and regulations, such as LEED or Estidama Pearl, set standards to be achieved by the construction industry with regards to design, materials, equipment, training and communications. They are of great support to provide benchmark to the industry and the market, as green buildings are now considered the “new normal” thanks to regulations and communications.
LEED, for example, has been commonly used in the UAE; taking advantage of its global, regional and local applicability to create structures that mitigate greenhouse gas emissions; create healthier indoor environments for workers, students and community members; and lower utility bills for building owners through reduced energy and water use.
With new regulations and other government initiatives focusing on the promotion of green building and sustainability, LEED has become even more popular in the UAE, having recently been featured number eight in the top 10 LEED countries ranking published by the US Green Building Council (USGBC).
AL RASHEDI: While there are many benefits to following the LEED programme, the UPC created and manages the Emirate’s sustainability programme, the Estidama Pearl Rating System, which became mandatory for all new buildings in Abu Dhabi in 2010 and holistically addresses sustainable design, construction and operation. Its relevance results from how it has been tailored to dealing with the specific challenges posed by the region’s arid desert climate. From an Emirate-level perspective, the Estidama Pearl Rating System, which is the fastest growing sustainability rating system in the world, has certainly contributed to advancing the UAE’s sustainable growth.
The UAE is in the top 10 LEED certified countries in the world, does that reflect in the overall sustainability of the country’s construction industry?
AL ABBAR: The increased popularity of LEED throughout the UAE shows that the construction industry in the country is changing, and green building standards are becoming mainstream. To us, as an independent organisation working towards promoting sustainable built environments, strengthening awareness of green buildings, ratings and other aspects to all stakeholders is our mandate. Finding the UAE featured in this list proves that the communications and education of professionals, developers, authorities and communities are working.
COLACO: In the year 2008, when H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Makhtoum announced that all new developments in Dubai has to be green, the only readily available benchmark which was acceptable to the community at large was the LEED certification programme, with EHS Trakhees being the first to adopt it. LEED’s popularity slowly spread to the whole region.
In my opinion LEED allowed instant implementation of the green directives, giving time for authorities to create and formalise green regulations specific to its jurisdiction. By the time local regulations like Estidama, QSAS, DM green building were in place, the green construction industry was somewhat familiar with the green concepts through their LEED projects experience.
LEED along with local green building regulations and the will of the UAE government has definitely placed the green construction industry in the path of green maturity.