The Green Expo Forum 2016 in Doha hosted sustainability leaders and representatives of prominent international bodies gathered from all over the world. For many, this was their first trip to the region.

During their stay in Doha, GORD arranged an exclusive tour to the newly developed smart city in Qatar – Lusail City and to the research facility of GORD Institute – Technohub.

These were the impressions of some of the guests on the visits and the various events of the forum:

Michele Rosano, Director of Sustainable Engineering Group at Curtin University, Perth Western Australia:

It was a great time to come here as we are involved in some research for GORD and looking into other areas of collaboration on improving sustainability engineering application in Qatar because being a new economy, they can do things differently and better than the old systems.

Visiting Technohub was a fantastic experience for me. The fact that they are researching the existing best technologies and their feasibility and looking to improvise and adapt it to suit Qatar's conditions is really very good.

Doug McClenahan, Manager, Renewable Heat and Power Research and Development at Canmet Energy, Natural Resources Canada and Member IEA:

It is impressive to see the task of building a completely new city from scratch. Fascinating to hear about the intensity of all the work involved in it as you don't see something like that often. Also, these solar facilities at Technohub and how they work is very interesting for us as we come from an entirely different environment.

Lamya Yousif Al Kandari, Team Leader, Research & Technology at Kuwait National Petroleum Company:

It was my first visit to Lusail and I'm really so proud to see it and I'm glad this concept of smart cities is getting more mature in the Gulf region. UAE and now with Lusail in Qatar, I hope Kuwait will also follow as this is the future.

It was also amazing to see Technohub. I found it different from other research institutes because they are focusing on what is available in the market and evaluating if it is suitable for us. The results from this approach are faster as it doesn't start from scratch. In particular I am very impressed with the air conditioning system utilizing brine water.

Jean-Christophe Hadorn, CEO chez Groupe Chuard, Energy and HVAC engineers, Switzerland and Member IEA:

It has been very exciting experience to see the work being done here and to attend the Green Expo Forum. I must say the program was really well put together with a good balance of topics and interesting presentations and interactions.

Gajanana Hegde, Team Leader for Standard Setting in the Sustainable Development Mechanism Programme of the UNFCCC secretariat:

The Carbon and Climate Change Summit went really well. All the topics discussed were quite relevant and it was very interesting to see the new technologies and solar developments. It was a good mix of topics including technology, policies and actions on global, regional and national levels. A good platform to initiate such topics and I hope they will progress to next level such as getting these efficient technologies and how they can not only save energy but also reduce the carbon footprint and one needs to be able to quantify this and organizations like GORD can play a role in this.