“Qatar is far more ahead in the green building practices than most countries in the region. The number of developers and organisations adopting green building practices in the country is going up in a big way,” QGBC director Meshal al-Shamari told Gulf Times.
“All the new buildings by Public Works Authority (Ashghal) and the the Ministry of Municipality and Environment are Global Sustainability Assessment System (GSAS) certified. Most of the major developers of properties in the country apply the green building practices in their projects. The new major projects by Msheirib Properties, Qatar Foundation, Lusail City among others are following the green building practices. All the new schools that are recently opening are GSAS certified,” he explained.
According to the QGBC director, all the government projects are following the green building practices. “However, the private sector is little behind. They have to pick up the momentum from the government and public entities. The green building practices have very high quality and provides several features which are lacking in the normal buildings,” he noted.
“The green buildings have great value because the asset value of the green buildings is much more than the normal buildings. Moreover, the indoor quality as well as other features of such buildings is far better than the normal buildings. It will also increase the performance of the employees which will result in higher input from them,” he highlighted.
The official hinted that the Qatar Sustainability Week from November 13-19 is an effort to involve the public more and more into sustainability practices. “The sustainability week plans to involve the public in the environmental and sustainability issues.We hope to engage the public and take them along in the journey.This will give a great leverage for the sustainability practices in the country,” he stated.
