Benefits of sustainability harvested at Construction Week Conference

Held at Dubai's Jumeirah Beach Hotel, the event covered topics including the cost effectiveness of going green, architecture, energy efficiency, and interior design.

The Construction Week conference attracted an impressive list of influential leaders and key decision makers from across the industry, to explore and share the practical and long term benefits of sustainable development.

The opening speaker Michael Nates, senior general manager for sustainability, health & safety and environment at Nakheel, said: "Sustainability is about more than the natural environment. It's about how people have to find a way to live on the planet that is different to how we have been for the past 15 or 20 years."

The event included an update on MASDAR, the world's first zero-carbon city, from Khaled Awad, the director of property development. He said: "When we started to think about Masdar, instead of running after points [LEED points] we thought, we need to have a vision of where we allow the development to go. Once we have this vision, everything else will follow."

Building Sustainability into the Middle East was endorsed by the Green Building Council and the Dubai Chamber of Commerce.

The event was divided into two main streams.

The first on architectural design; and the second focusing on facilities management, chaired by Mick Dalton, senior director for asset management for EMAAR Properties.

Other key speakers at the event included Professor Abd El Halim from Carleton University in Canada, and Hazel Wong, director of RMJM.

In the afternoon, a special panel discussion was held on selling the concept to the public and gauging the market demand for green developments.

Oscar Wendel, director of construction week conferences said: "Our aim was to create a forum to comprehensively examine how the various pieces of the jigsaw can fit together to make sustainability a success in this region. This event is central to our series of events for 2008 and builds up to the Construction Week Award Conference being held in November."

Jeff Roberts, Middle East Architect editor, helped to plan the programme alongside Becca Wilson, Facilities Management editor.

Kimon Alexandrou, Director of ITP Business Publishing, said: "Construction Week provides the industry with a weekly publication, directories, newsletters and now conferences promoting the latest news here in the Middle East to our readers."

"Sustainability is firmly on the agenda - going beyond what it is, to how we achieve it. With Over 150 attendees at the Building Sustainability into the Middle East Conference the event stands as a true reflection of what is going on in the region."

The conference was sponsored by Schneider Electric, Hangsgrohe, Al Habtoor Leighton Group, Roca, Whitby & Bird, OSRAM, InterfaceFLOR, EMS, and neXgen Advisory Group.