ST. REGIS – THE PALM / DUBAI / UAE
Putting innovation into practice:
trending alternative energy solutions
and the vanguard of sustainability
21 Jun 2022
MAIN HALL
10:00
Introduction
Gavin Davids / Head of Editorial and Content / Big Project Middle East
Welcome to all delegates and speakers
Gavin Davids talks about the importance of transitioning towards a future that is wholly powered by renewable energy sources, and the opportunities and impact that sustainability will bring to the regional construction and real estate sectors. Outlining the agenda and aims of the Energy & Sustainability Summit, he will make the case as to why sustainability is the only way to do business for the real estate and construction industries in the region.
MAIN HALL
10:10
Keynote Presentation
Abdullatif Nafez Albitawi / Director / Emirates Green Building Council
Decarbonising Buildings: Advancing Net-Zero
The building and construction sector is globally responsible for 36% of energy consumption, 38% of energy related carbon emissions, 50% of resource consumption, and is expected to double in total footprint by 2060.
Emirates Green Building Council is dedicated to support local market transformation towards total sector decarbonisation. To support the UAE’s strategies, EmiratesGBC has established the Net Zero Centre of Excellence, as a think-tank and accelerator combining multiple pathways, which aims to advance the net zero buildings movement in the UAE provides. This presentation will show the different actions and initiatives that can help achieving net zero targets.
Emirates Green Building Council is dedicated to support local market transformation towards total sector decarbonisation. To support the UAE’s strategies, EmiratesGBC has established the Net Zero Centre of Excellence, as a think-tank and accelerator combining multiple pathways, which aims to advance the net zero buildings movement in the UAE provides. This presentation will show the different actions and initiatives that can help achieving net zero targets.
MAIN HALL
10:35
Panel Discussion
Panel Discussion
Facilitating the Energy Transition
This panel focuses on why the region’s leading economies are focusing on – and are heavily invested in – the transition away from the traditional sources of their wealth, the oil and gas industries. The conversation by the panellists will focus on how and why the regional AEC industries must not only prepare itself for the challenges to come, but also on how they can lead the change by designing and developing buildings and infrastructure that will speed up the transformation.
Talking points:
- The huge economic opportunities on offer
- Utilising the MENA region’s natural attributes as a competitive advantage
- Building the infrastructure to support the transition
- Why renewables are the key to boosting the region’s power generation capacity
- The projects setting the benchmark for the energy transition
- Developing new low and zero-carbon energies such as green and blue hydrogen
Moderator:
- Sachin Kerur / Head of Middle East Region / Reed Smith
Panellists:
- Louise Collins / Head of Project and Development Services UAE & Head of Engineering and Energy MEA / JLL
- Anita Nouri / CEO and Business Development Director / Green Energy Solutions & Sustainability
- Hamzeh Buqaei / Manager of the German Energy Academy / Al Hussein Technical University, Jordan
- David Haboubi / Head of Nuclear and Net-Zero Energy / SNC-Lavalin
- Samiullah Khan / Chief Operating Officer / Saif Air Tech – A Fakhruddin Holding Company
MAIN HALL
11:25
Presentation
Kareem Farah / CEO / ECC
The first recycled Engineered Wooden Board from Palm Waste
Desert Board by Al Talah Board manufacturing is the first recycling plant in the world to produce an Engineered Wooden Board, with solid structural properties (comparable to OSB 3 Boards), from palm waste.
Kareem Farah showcases how Desert Board’s products are comparable to OSB boards that have many potential uses, such as shuttering material for concreting, hoarding on construction sites, panels for cabinets in the joinery industry, elevated walkways where there is scaffolding, furniture, heavy-duty packing boxes for shipping purposes, doors, event stands for exhibitions, and are even used to build houses, as well as for partitions in homes in North America, Europe, and Australasia.
Kareem Farah showcases how Desert Board’s products are comparable to OSB boards that have many potential uses, such as shuttering material for concreting, hoarding on construction sites, panels for cabinets in the joinery industry, elevated walkways where there is scaffolding, furniture, heavy-duty packing boxes for shipping purposes, doors, event stands for exhibitions, and are even used to build houses, as well as for partitions in homes in North America, Europe, and Australasia.
MAIN HALL
11:50
Break
Networking
Coffee
MAIN HALL
12:00
Panel Discussion
Panel Discussion
Project Development in the Age of Sustainability
In recent years, prior even to the pandemic, real estate investors and developers have been conscious of the need to incorporate sustainability principles and practices into their projects. With investors and tenants now demanding these as standard, our panel of experts will share insights into how their projects meet and surpass these requirements, across a variety of projects.
Talking points:
- The impact of upcoming COP events on sustainable real estate development in the region
- How sustainable design makes real estate projects resilient and cost-effective
- The impact of climate change on real estate investments
- Incorporating climate resiliency and renewable energy features in regional real estate projects
- Linking sustainable development with social impact of assets
- Utilising big data and analytics to enable more agile, efficient and practical real estate projects
Moderator:
- Ghina Annan / Senior Sustainability Specialist – Mechanical Engineer / Stantec
Panellists:
- Ian Williamson / Chief Projects Delivery Officer / The Red Sea Development Company
- Karim El-Jisr / Chief Sustainability Officer / Diamond Developers
- Jesùs Sancho / Director General – Middle East / ACCIONA
- Dr Ioannis Spanos / Director of Sustainability / KEO International Consultants
- Başar Kayali / General Manager / ALEC Energy
MAIN HALL
12:45
Keynote Presentation
Samiullah Khan / Chief Operating Officer / Saif Air Tech – A Fakhruddin Holding Company
A Healthy and Sustainable Building Solution
A Healthy Life requires access to healthy Air, Water and Food. As humans spend most of their lives indoor, the Indoor Air Quality is highly important to occupants’ health. In tropical countries, there are many factors that affect the Indoor Air Quality leading to many respiratory health problems, which are collectively titled as Sick Building Syndrome. The productivity of a person also gets reduced due to sickness faced, which in turn collectively affects the national economy. In this presentation, Samiullah showscases how Saif Air Tech’s HEECO2R helps provides the required Healthy Indoor Air Quality to turn a building into a HEALTHY BUILDING.
MAIN HALL
13:05
Break
Networking
Lunch
MAIN HALL
14:05
Panel Discussion
Panel Discussion
Driving the Net-Zero Agenda in the GCC
This special panel discussion will focus on the major interdependencies between the Energy Sector, the Built Environment and the Transport and Mobility Sector, and will highlight the opportunities, risks and recommendations for each to drive the net-zero agenda in the GCC region and beyond.
Talking points:
- The impact of the built environment and its role in tackling the climate crisis
- Why an integrated approach to buildings and infrastructure will help tackle challenges around climate change
- The importance of decarbonising our energy supply and implementing renewable energy in our built assets
- Where does the decarbonisation of transport systems and networks fit in with a new emissions trajectory in the built environment?
- The need to reduce embodied emissions and how the supply chain can contribute
Moderator:
- Gavin Davids / Head of Editorial and Content / Big Project Middle East
Panellists:
- Matthew Tribe / Managing Director – Buildings and Places, Middle East / Atkins, a member of the SNC-Lavalin Group
- Jonathan Spear / Transport Policy and Strategy Advisor / Atkins, a member of the SNC-Lavalin Group
- Ian Williamson / Chief Projects Delivery Officer / The Red Sea Development Company
- Dr Pablo Izquierdo / Energy Efficiency Manager at the Energy Efficiency and Renewables Office / Ras Al Khaimah Municipality
MAIN HALL
14:50
Presentation
Ali Mumtaz / Director – Environmental Management and Assessment / The Red Sea Development Company
Regenerative Tourism with Environmental Safeguards
Environment is a core component of sustainability and plays a pivotal role in The Red Sea Project’s development decisions. This conference presentation will focus on the environmental safeguards adopted during all stages of the project. It will outline TRSDC’s commitments on biodiversity conservation and enhancement, steps taken to identify the valued environmental receptors primarily in the marine environment, nature of scientific studies conducted and how they inform the design of a project asset. It will also touch on an initiative taken to adopt an ecosystem services-based Value Driven Approach that helps shape a master plan with a holistic view of development objectives and sustainability principles.
MAIN HALL
15:10
Panel Discussion
Panel Discussion
Achieving Net-Zero – Carbon Neutrality as a Construction Company
The final panel discussion of the day will see the region’s leading Net-Zero advocates discuss what it means to be Carbon Neutral as a construction company, given that the industry is one of the main contributors towards carbon emissions. In this discussion, our panel of experts will make the business case for achieving net-zero and share their insights into how this can be achieved.
Talking points:
- Why moving from a compliance-focused to a performance-focused approach is key to advancing the net-zero agenda
- How can construction companies decarbonise their operations?
- The urgency of change
- The need for cross-societal, cross-cultural, and international collaborative action
- Why governmental policy change is essential to achieve net-zero
- Revamping the supply chain
- How a circular economy can lead to sustainable infrastructure
Moderator:
- Farah Naz / Head of Innovation and ESG / AECOM Middle East and Africa
Panellists:
- Engi Jaber / CEO and Managing Director / Climatize Engineering Consultants
- Katarina Uherova Hasbani / Partner and Global Director of Strategy and Advisory / AESG
- Mario Saab / Head of Sustainability – MENA / Cundall
- Tadhg O’Donovan / Deputy Vice Principal, Academic Leadership & Head of the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences / Heriot-Watt University Dubai
- Sophia Kee Head of Future Ready – Property and Buildings / WSP Middle East
MAIN HALL
15:55
Closing
Gavin Davids / Head of Editorial and Content / Big Project Middle East
Closing remarks
Gavin Davids closes the day event summarising the take a way points and thanking all the speakers, delegates, sponsors and partners.