Prince Dr. Mansour Bin Miteb (fourth from left, front row), Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs, with senior executives and participants, at the recently held Third Annual Conference of Saudi Green Building Forum in Riyadh. RIYADH —The recently concluded two-day Third Annual Conference of Saudi Green Building Forum held in the Saudi capital city endorsed a list of 10 recommendations to increase awareness of the green technologies and the importance of adopting the said technologies in new building construction. A strategic partnership agreement was also signed with the US Green Building Council to promote business growth on an international level. The forum called for the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Education to consider introducing sustainability and environmental awareness as a part of the national curriculum for elementary and secondary education. The forum also proposed that the Kingdom's technical education should be expanded to encompass green building and sustainability topics and skills, including the practical application of such skills in the Kingdom's construction industry. The forum recommended that sustainability and green building initiatives should be encouraged right from school level to university level so that students become aware of it and join hands to bring in the green era in the Kingdom. The 10 recommendations are: Establishment of green building chapter, building a model home, training, more green initiatives, more use of solar energy, support from all sectors, business incentive program, launching a new “City for Nuclear and Renewable National Strategy”, teamwork, and inclusion of sustainability and environmental awareness in the school curriculum for both elementary and secondary educations. Eng. Faisal S. Alfadl, Secretary General of the SGB Forum, presented the recommendations. Thanking the organizers of the forum, Prince Dr. Mansour Bin Miteb Bin Abdul Aziz, Minister of Municipalities and Rural Affairs, said the accompanying exhibition entitled “The Triple Result: Man, Earth and Economy” drew experiences and experiments in architecture, green cities, technologies in energy conservation and solutions for the environmental problems. “There is no doubt that the concept of the green buildings is one of the important issues for the Ministry of Rural and Municipal Affairs and the ministry begins the stage of setting up binding specifications for the construction contractors in the new buildings of the government institutions, abiding them to use materials friendly to the environment as well as modern technologies that can save energy.” He said contractors should concentrate on smart concrete materials and constructions as well as clean energy tools including air conditioning, extensions, finishing, quality certificates and unification of the building codes. The Saudi Council of Engineers welcomed the outcome of the forum, saying that the event “basically aims to transfer and exchange experiences and cooperation among various bodies in order to raise the scientific and practical level.” The council said the Saudi Engineers Authority agreed to form a division concerned with the green buildings called the Green Buildings Division aimed at preparing scientific and professional thought as well as developing the scientific and practical performance in the field of green buildings in Saudi Arabia . The King Abdullah City for Science and Technology (KACST) said it “conducts some research projects and innovates products that achieve the sustainability principle. Some patents are registered in this field and the most outstanding ones are the cement product, cement block that is friendly to environment (geopolymer) making use of the volatile materials in cement plants and reusing them in order to protect environment.” KACST added that it has created an artificial palm wood made of plastic wastes, palm fronds in order to be alternative to the natural wood. Patents include also the artificial marble that can be made with the reuse of marble and stone wastes resulting from cutting operations and repairing of buildings. It has also created plastic sulfur product that is made from the wastes of the oil and natural gas industry that reduces the harmful wastes to environment and benefiting from them. Moreover, it said another patent it achieved is for the Saudi artificial wood that is made of the solid agricultural wastes and leaves in order to produce artificial wood friendly to environment. “All these patents can be used in buildings, sustainable and green construction,” it noted. Alfadl emphasized that “effective economy should be based on principles of sustainability, conservation of resources and rational uses of energy. This is a claim all conferences and programs of the United Nations call for as well as the orientations of the modern economic policies on the national, regional and international levels.” He further said that applying the concepts of green buildings concentrates on three main elements in life of nations and countries, i.e., human, earth and economy. The National Commercial Bank, for its part, said “recognizing the importance of energy conservation and water for a sustainable environment, National Commercial Bank have had to adopt five-year plan environmental save energy and water in all buildings and branches to reduce carbon emissions from the operation of such buildings and start considering renewable energy and implementing green building standards for all construction of its future banks.” — SG/QJM
