Dubai’s green buildings to get incentives

The Dubai Government is working on a plan to offer incentives to green buildings with the ‘green building code’ all set to be unveiled in the next two months, a top government official has revealed.

“The government is working on an incentive plan for green buildings. Dubai has been on the forefront of introducing green concepts… now the code has gone into printing and will be released in two months,” Essa Al Maidoor, Assistant Director-General for Planning and Engineering, Dubai Municipality, told Emirates Business.

Jesse Downs, Director, Research and Advisory Services at Landmark Advisory, said on Wednesday government subsidies are critical to induce landlords to retrofit their buildings as well as to induce developers to build green buildings.

Al Maidoor did not disclose the incentives that the government is planning to offer, but said: “The savings they get are the best incentives… the owners will benefit in the long term.”

He said no building permit will be issued if the developers do not meet the green requirements. “There has been no resistance from anyone. There is a lot of awareness among developers, consultants and contractors,” he added.

In 2007, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, issued a directive mandating builders and developers to comply with green building standards to ensure a healthy and environment-friendly city. The decision came into effect from January 2008.

Al Maidoor said the municipality is being “realistic and practical” in implementing green rules rather than introducing those in one go and create more complications for the industry.

A green building is an environment-friendly building, which helps reduce a damaging impact on the environment. It has less harmful impact on human health and the environment because of better design, construction, operation and maintenance. A green building, on an average, saves 70 per cent electricity, 50 to 60 per cent water and 36 per cent energy than standard buildings.