Green building way forward in growing Saudi market

Nearly 700 buildings in an array of construction projects under way in Saudi Arabia are expected to be nominated for LEED certification over the next few years, according to Abdulrahman Al-Motrif, director of Smart Campuses & Building Department at the Ministry of Higher Education.
In anticipation of the upcoming Saudi Big 5 Exhibition to be held in Jeddah, developers in the region once again will focus on the benefits of implementing green building practices into future projects. In recent times, the Saudi government has applied LEED building standards in collaboration with regional and international experts, with the aim of reducing the cost of construction and power consumption, while extending the age of current buildings.
New or completed learning institutions are leading the way, including the massive Princess Noura bint Abdelrahman University, the largest women’s university in the world.
According to Andrew Jackson, a director at SAS International, which manufactures interior fit-out products and green building solutions, “Green building is something that SAS International has been involved with for many years and there are a number of projects in the Middle East, including King Saud University in Riyadh where we have installed metal ceiling systems.
“Our metal solutions can help toward a building meeting LEED standards. But more importantly projects are now demanding long term-value of any product balanced with environmental credentials, which closely reflects the Saudi government’s own vision for a more sustainable future,” he added.
To date, the Kingdom has set forth several regulations regarding green building and included sustainability practices into the vision set out by the government. Due to the increasing knowledge about green building and with government support, developers have pursued LEED certification primarily from the United States and have gained certification for major projects such as the King Abdullah Economic City and the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, which holds a platinum certification (2009) — the first in Saudi Arabia and the world’s largest at the time.