Green buildings to attract leading developers at the World Future Energy Summit

Green buildings to attract leading developers at the World Future Energy Summit


Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 14th January 2009: Thousands of architects, developers, planners and construction companies are gathering together to discuss Green buildings and Urban Built Environment at the World Future Energy Summit. Over 70 companies involved in green building and construction will spread throughout the summit exhibition from January 19-21, including 6 national pavilions – Germany, Holland, Spain, United States, Switzerland and Denmark.

8 world leaders in green architecture, planning and energy efficiency in building will be dominating the commercial technical session on Jan 21st including Ken Yeang of Llewelyn Davies Yeang, Pooran Desai, Bioregional Quintain and Prashant Kapoor, Director of sustainability, WSP. The 2 sessions – Green Building and Urban Scale Built Environment – will be followed by the highly anticipated closing ceremony speech by Tony Blair.

“Simply sticking some solar panels on the roof will only add cost and not necessarily save much carbon.” says Mr. Desai, who will discuss how to successfully plan green buildings at the Summit. “We need to think about taking a holistic approach to energy efficiency, building management systems and renewable energy.”

The Summit will offer developers and construction companies details needed to adapt to the new regulations of ESTIDAMA n Abu Dhabi and Dubai Green Building Regulations, which are unique given the climatic factors, availability of technology, skills and materials relating to building design and operation.
While the long term demand for green building is very high. The short term financial distress is affecting all development, not just green buildings, but according to Prof Phillips Jones, “The downturn in the economy has had a major impact of the construction industry. This may bring benefits to sustainable design. The slowdown in construction may allow more time to be given to issues of sustainability.”
With over 15,000 attendees expected, 20 government delegations, 110 speakers from 23 countries, over 300 exhibiting companies from 27 countries and 500 media expected from all over the world, the renewable energy industry shows no sign of weakness.