In at the DEEP END

Majd Fayyad, Technical Manager at Emirates Green Building Council, explains why deep retrofits are key to strengthening sustainable built environments

The commitment to promoting sustainable development is underpinned by every nation’s concerted efforts in implementing green building practices in the construction sector.

Globally, buildings and the construction sector account for the largest share of energy-related CO2 emissions at nearly 40%.

CO2 emissions, attributed to the construction sector, are speculated to be much higher due to the large demand for air-conditioning, with buildings accounting for up to 70% of the nation’s total electricity consumption.

This underlines the need to implement energy efficiency measures, which are today increasingly being adopted across the nation in newly constructed buildings.

In fact, as per the Green Building Market Brief 2020, the nation has around 64 million square meters of built-up areas that have deployed local green building regulations or certification programmes.

The government has also launched retrofit programmes to enhance the energy performance of existing building stocks. Dubai leads the way and has completed retrofitting of 1,241 buildings and 6,658 villas.

To support the industry further, EmiratesGBC conducted a Deep Retrofit Study to understand the awareness and capabilities – as well as the challenges and opportunities– related to deep retrofit projects.

What is a deep building retrofit?

According to the International Energy Agency and the Rocky Mountain Institute, a deep retrofit is defined as a project analysis and construction process by which energy use intensity on-site is reduced by at least 50%, using energy efficiency measures compared to the baseline site energy use intensity.