The QGBC officials and representatives of the sponsors of the conference at the press conference. PICTURE: Jayan Orma


By Joseph Varghese/Staff Reporter



The inaugural Green Building Conference organised by Qatar Green Building Council (QGBC) will focus on four key themes of Passivhaus in the Mena region, retrofitting Doha, measuring the carbon footprint and Qatar’s National Vision and future sustainable cities.
The inaugural conference, of which the details were announced at a press conference yesterday, will be held at the Qatar National Convention Centre on 27 and 28 of this month. There will also be an exhibition along with the conference.
Meshal al-Shamari, director, QGBC Ali al-Kuwari, chief officer, Design and Delivery, Msheireb Properties, Ali al-Khalifa, chief executive officer, ASTAD and Dr Alex Amato, head of Sustainability at QGBC took part in the media interact
Al-Shamari said: “The conference will host a number of leading sustainability and green building experts from Qatar and around the world to advance the important sustainability agenda. During the conference, we will also announce a new platform to address one of the challenges that Qatar is facing in the demand and supply of products and the availability of knowledge.”
The topic of Passivhaus will draw on QGBC and its partners’ experience of constructing and operating the first Qatar Case Study Passivhaus Project, which will outline the lessons learnt and information on the on-going research programme.  
Qatar’s first Passivhaus experiment or project Baytna features an ultra-low energy building, derived from a super insulated airtight building envelope, that requires little energy for cooling, reducing its environmental footprint. The Passivhaus villa has been designed with all the comforts of modern living while consuming at least 50% less energy, water and operational carbon dioxide emissions.
The topic of retrofitting Doha will draw on the Texas A&M University and QGBC Qatar National Research funded project that is investigating the energy performance of buildings and the innate skills and competences of the facilities management provision in Qatar. It will also investigate the importance of facilities management to the enhanced delivery of sustainability standards of Doha’s existing building stock.
The development of carbon dioxide measurement and accounting, and the various mitigation methods applicable to the region, especially in the context of planning and delivering sporting and infrastructural construction and developments for the 2022 FIFA World Cup to be hosted in Qatar will be in focus under the theme measuring the carbon footprint and Qatar’s National Vision.
The topic of future sustainable cities will draw out and discuss the rich traditions to promote how they might be both maintained in a new era of rapid urbanisation.


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