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Dewa opens its green building in Al Quoz

DUBAI — Setting new global standards in sustainability, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) officially opened its new Sustainable Building in Al Quoz. The office is the largest government building in the world to have secured Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) platinum rating for green buildings.

Dewa opened the first sustainable building in the UAE, in the presence of Shaikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, UAE Minister of Finance, and President of Dewa; Shaikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Supreme Council of Energy in Dubai; Matar Humaid Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Dewa; members of the board, Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of Dewa; Executive Vice-Presidents from Dewa and a number of senior officials and VIPs from ministries and government departments, and media representatives.

Shaikh Hamdan, Shaikh Ahmed, Humaid Al Tayer, Mohammed Al Tayer and other government and Dewa officials at the opening ceremony of the sustainable building in Al Quoz, Dubai, on Tuesday. — KT photos by Rahul Gajjar

“The Dewa Sustainable Building achieved 98 out of 110 points. The building is now the largest government building in the world with a Platinum rating for green buildings from the LEED, the US Green Building Council institute, which has a set of rating criteria for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings, homes and neighbourhoods in the world,” said Al Tayer.

Facilities at the building include Dewa’s 14^th customer service centre providing a variety of services, a customer call centre, an engineering and control centre and the Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) centre for water systems.

“The new building, which occupies 340,000 square feet is part of our ‘Green Buildings’ initiative to achieve the highest levels of efficiency in the consumption of electricity and water. The building has been completed as per Dewa’s Green Building regulations, with recycled materials accounting for 36 per cent of the total construction materials used. The building has a laboratory to ensure that the quality of water conforms to all environmental standards applicable to green buildings around the world. In addition, the building has a fully automated control panel to control the cooling and air conditioning systems, and a number of ventilation units, to reduce energy consumption,” said Abullah Obaidullah, EVP of Water and Civil at DEWA.

The new project will achieve an energy performance efficiency level of over 66 per cent by providing additional insulation in its walls and roof. Special glass has been installed to reduce heat transfer into the building, while highly efficient water-cooled chillers cut down energy consumption.

The building uses low-powered LED lights and automatic lighting control systems with occupancy sensors. In addition, renewable energy is available through an on-site 660 kW solar power plant, thereby reducing the building’s carbon footprint even further.

The home of the headquarters of Dewa’s Water and Civil Engineering Division features a storm-water management plan that ensures recycling of water for irrigation. Special regulators, sensor taps, low flow fixtures and waterless urinals help reduce water consumption by as much as 48 per cent. All sewage water is treated by a grey water treatment plant and sewage treatment plant. Treated water is reused in the cooling tower, for irrigation and flushing toilets.

More than 20 per cent of the project site area features vegetated open spaces while waste reduction is aided by an easily- accessible dedicated area for the collection and storage of materials for recycling. The building exceeds the standards of design in energy and environment by 20 per cent by extracting and manufacturing 28 per cent of the materials within 800km of the project.

Indoor air quality in the building is constantly monitored with the help of carbon dioxide sensors with alarms in all densely occupied areas, like meeting rooms. Also, outdoor air is treated and supplied throughout the building to provide better ventilation. Sustainability standards have been a priority throughout the construction process and the choice of materials used, which will help Dewa achieve its strategic goals and attain recognition for its projects, both nationally and internationally.

Located close to Noor Islamic Bank Metro Station on the Red Line of Dubai Metro, it will help reduce pollution and land development impact from automobile use. It also has secure bicycle tracks for five per cent of the building users, in addition to preferential parking for low-emission and fuel-efficient vehicles.

“The new green achievement fits in perfectly with the initiative entitled ‘Green Economy for Sustainable Development,’ under the patronage of His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and Dewa’s strategy to reduce energy consumption by conserving our precious natural resources and finding energy-efficient renewable solutions. We want to reduce energy consumption as part of our efforts to protect the environment to achieve our long-term goal of sustainable development, for generations to come,” added Al Tayer.

The new building accommodates 1,000 Dewa employees, and provides high-quality benchmarked services such as registering new customers, bill enquiries and payments, final bill requests, change of billing addresses, clearance certificates, and sourcing suggestions and complaints and general enquiries.

dhanusha@khaleejtimes.com