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Dubai community lives clean, avoids 6,500-tonne emissions

Dubai - A stark contrast from Dubai's current waste diversion rate which see's 80 per cent of waste ending up in landfills.

In a span of just 12 months, the 2,000 residents living in The Sustainable City (TSC) in Dubai have avoided more than 6,500 tonnes of carbon emissions by living cleaner and smarter. That's equivalent to taking 670 SUVs off the road for one whole year.

The 46 hectare sustainable masterplan development, which houses 589 residential units, managed to divert 85 per cent of its waste from landfills during the period of January 2017 to December 2017 too. A stark contrast from Dubai's current waste diversion rate which see's 80 per cent of waste ending up in landfills.
Speaking to Khaleej Times at the Future Cities Show on Monday, Karim El Jisr, executive director of the community, shared some unreleased statistics relating to its sustainable practice. And he said their "system works" because the environment-conscious community living within it TSC share facilities.
"We have 124 electric buggies located throughout the vicinity for residents to get around. Normal vehicles cannot be driven within the development. Additionally, 12 households own electric cars, that's the highest ownership rate in any one development in Dubai."
But by 2020, El Jisr said they hope to see EV ownership "jump to 25 per cent". 
Noting TSC's "strongest story to date", he said its savings when it comes to energy consumption gets a "nine out of 10" for efforts towards living more sustainably.
"On average, our households use 97kWh/m2/year but we want to bring it down to 90kWh/m2/year. If you compare that to the standard average consumption rate of Dubai's green standard buildings today, they achieve around 160-170kWh/m2/year."
And when you look at TSC residents' water consumption, they are utilising way below the average rate of others across the country.
With the average UAE resident consuming 550L/capita/day, residents in TSC use less that half this; 178L/capita/day. Even when taking into consideration Dubai Electricity and Water Authority's water design consumption rate for residential buildings, which is 250-300L/capita/day, TSC remains way below this rate.
Maintaining a sustainable community is all about addressing six key components consisting of water, energy, waste, food, products and mobility.
In all, TSC residents have helped the community avoid 6,554 tonnes of CO2 emissions in one year.
With more than a dozen plans for similar communities been laid down by TSC, El Jisr said for the next developments they will be looking to "densify the community and make it more attainable" for residents.
kelly@khaleejtimes.com