Dr Alhorr: “We pursue to establish cities with a low carbon footprint”.

Gulf Organisation for Research & Development (GORD) and the Qatar National Conservation Program (TARSHEED) shared with building administrators, commissioning engineers, environmentalists, and movement officials best practices on saving energy and water through the use of GSAS tools during the GSAS-Operation CGP Workshop held at QNCC.

During their opening remarks, Dr. Yousef Alhorr (GORD’s Founding Chairman) and Eng. Abdulaziz Al Hammadi (Manager of Conservation & Energy Efficiency Department at Kaharamaa) representing the president of KAHRAMAA welcomed the entire building sector community and emphasized the importance of improving sustainability performance for our existing buildings.

GSAS Operations certification aims to reduce the environmental impacts of existing buildings, to improve health and well-being and occupant satisfaction by adopting the best practice available. Irrespective of how buildings are designed and built, the actual sustainability footprint largely depends upon how buildings are operated.

Dr. Yousef Alhorr, Founding Chairman of GORD said:

Cities are the hub of human life; therefore, it is critical to ensure that while we focus on the comforts of living, the cities remain sustainable, resilient and low-carbon. We believe that energy and water labelling standards and practices adopted by GSAS-Operations will go long way to mitigate harmful environmental impacts due to operation of buildings.

Today’s workshop comes at the core of Tarsheed’s mission and ongoing endeavors to promote sustainability. I would like to acknowledge GORD’s outstanding organization of the workshop and their remarkable contribution to the sustainability field in Qatar and region.

said Eng. Abdulaziz Al Hammadi, Manager of Conservation & Energy Efficiency Department at KAHRAMAA.

The workshop attracted the participation of more than 90 practitioners working in various public and private sectors in Qatar and the region. Representing more than 38 government entities and local organizations, the delegates reaffirmed their commitment to improving the sustainability standards of the built environment and address the need to conserve water and energy consumption in Qatar and the region.

The certificate targets five main assessment categories: energy consumption and performance, water consumption, indoor environment quality, waste management, and facility management. Projects that target the standard operations scheme must fulfill the energy, water and facility management requirements. While projects that demonstrate compliance in the energy, water, indoor environment, waste management and facility management categories will be awarded the Premium Scheme certificate.

Additionally, the GSAS Operation Certification introduces five certification ratings to recognize the project achievement and measure the sustainability impact of operational practices for a specific building type. Whether bronze, silver, gold, platinum or diamond, each rating corresponds to a specific range of the aggregated score of all assessment criteria.

By promoting the best sustainability practices in building design, construction management and operations, GSAS aims to create a sustainable built environment, minimize resource consumption and reduce environmental degradation caused by urbanization in the region.