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The Qatar Green Building Council (QGBC) has hosted a “Welcome to QGBC” public event to raise awareness about greener initiatives. |
This was in line with Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development’s mission of driving innovation and enhancing sustainable development through environment-friendly initiatives.
More than 100 experts and green activists from across various sectors of Qatar’s economy attended the event, which highlighted the organisation’s contributions to achieving sustainability ambitions as outlined in Qatar National Vision 2030.
QGBC has a growing base of volunteers and members forming a number of interest groups, such as Water, Solid Waste, Energy, Healthy Building, and Facility Management, which were represented at the event.
Held at the QGBC headquarters, the gathering provided briefs about the wide array of hands-on programmes that the council leads on a regular basis.
QGBC director Meshal al-Shamari welcomed new members and said the networking event was part of an ongoing recruitment drive for volunteers.
“QGBC depends entirely on the strength of its members and volunteers to promote and achieve its vision in the best way possible,” he said. “We are sincerely thankful for your continued efforts and enthusiasm in striving to create a culture of sustainability in Qatar that will take us closer to achieving Qatar National Vision 2030 in its best possible form.”
QGBC has developed a relatively large network of members, with 160 individual and 20 organisational members who work on various projects and programmes of national interest.
Dr Alex Amato, head of Sustainability at QGBC who leads a number of ground-breaking technical and innovative programmes, said: “Experts from the public and private sectors have heavily contributed to formulating and implementing technical projects, ranging from devising public awareness campaigns to high-level, innovative energy-modelling programmes.
“Some projects currently being completed by our expert members and volunteers will soon be launched and include the ‘No Paper Day’ campaign, ‘Stay Green’ campaign and the ‘Qatar Greet Product Directory’.”
Later this year, QGBC members and volunteers will also undertake the analysis of results from QGBC’s recently launched “How Green is Your Home?” e-survey and will develop a collection of best practices.
The e-survey aims to gather information from citizens and expatriates living in Qatar about how they use electricity, gas and water, in addition to their behaviours in using regular household appliances such as air-conditioners, washing machines and televisions.
The e-survey is open for another three weeks. To complete QGBC’s e-survey, visit www.surveymonkey.com/s/qgbcsurvey
