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Eng. Issa M. Al Mohannadi, Founder and Chairman of the Qatar Green Building Council, and Chief Executive Officer of Dohaland, said:
"We commit to join the world green building movement, encouraging the builders and developers in Qatar to adapt sustainable environmental practices to ensure a sustainable future for the coming generations of Qataris. As a growing country, it is important that we are responsible in our development and are conscious of what we do today will affect tomorrow. Ensuring this responsibility and consciousness exists, and is adopted by the industry, is the task that we have at the Qatar Green Building Council."
QGBC is a private organisation of public benefit with a vision to provide leadership and collaboration for Qatar in guiding and adopting environmentally sustainable practices for green building design and development; and to support the health and sustainability of environment, people and economic security for generations to come.
The Council's mission is to educate the public, generate and foster awareness among the people, develop a definitive set of clear environmental and green building best practice guidelines, and to support and commit to research and development.
"Our challenge is to convince people that environmental sustainability is something that must be taken seriously and implemented on a daily basis. Environmentally friendly language is widely used today, but we intend to make sure this language is actually affecting change in Qatar. People are saying a lot of great things about what they will do - now let's see those words become measurable actions," said Eng Issa M. Al Mohannadi.
The Council will be set up to support numerous certification programs and Internationally recognized benchmarks of sustainable building practices including L.E.E.D. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (U.S. based), BREEAM (UK based), and Green Star (Australian based) and emerging systems, being developed to address the unique climatic challenges in this region, such as BREEAM Gulf (Middle East) and QSAS (Qatar).)
QGBC will collaborate with the design and building industry and liaise with government to promote sustainable development. It will help define certain standards for sustainable policies, products and service, as well as guide and train designers, planners, and developers in the creation and development of green buildings and sustainable communities.
To initiate a positive change in industry practices, the Council will create real incentives to the private sector to pursue sustainable environmentally friendly practices and technologies. To ensure that the green building initiatives are recognized, valued and maintained, the QGBC will set up an award program to recognize organizations for their green building achievements.
"It is important that Qatar has its own Green Building Council because the evolution of Qatar's green building practices will be different from other countries, climates and regions. We need to find out what is right, and achievable, for Qatar, and we look forward to working with others as we move forward with this mission," said Eng. Issa M. Al Mohannadi.
The QGBC will introduce membership programs to promote green building initiatives and undertake professional development programs to expand industry knowledge of green practices and technologies. The QGBC membership to be announced in the coming months will provide organisations an opportunity to join, liaise and gain the support of a worldwide network of a community of experts and developers in the green building industry. For information on the QGBC membership please write to info@qatargbc.org
Following up on its vision of fostering awareness among the people about green building practices, the QGBC has also created a special membership for young people and students called the QGBC Youth Forum. This forum specifically engages young people of Qatar to help define and build their future communities, providing a structure for creating programs and initiatives that they feel represent their vision and goals.
The QGBC envisions implementing a trend seen around the globe, where people and industry are working together to promote sustainable design of land, public spaces, infrastructure and buildings, allowing people to live within their ecological footprint in harmony.
With the launch of QGBC, Qatar is set to become the newest member of the World Green Building Council (WGBC). QGBC will operate as a member of the WGBC which represents over 50% of global construction activity bringing together 15,000 companies and organisations worldwide. Through QGBC, Qatar joins 16 countries worldwide who are in the early stages of setting up their own Green Building Councils; in order to join the current 12-member countries of the WGBC.
Posted by Siba Sami Ammari
