On Tuesday, 1st May 2018 Dr. Yousef Alhorr (Founding Chairman GORD) presented a workshop titled “The Future of Green Buildings in GCC: GSAS Standard Perspective” to a full arena of around 100 professionals in Kuwait attending the event at the Auditorium of Public Authority of Applied Education & Training.

This workshop was the first of many such initiatives to be taken place under the MoU that was signed earlier this year between Gulf Organisation for Research and Development and EnerTech Holding Company. Under the MoU, the two organisations established collaboration on Global Sustainability Assessment System (GSAS) related activities including deployment of GSAS in projects in Kuwait; Educational activities such as training courses, workshops and seminars; and other joint projects.

The workshop aimed to provide delegates with the necessary tools and means of sustainable development giving them the opportunity to create sustainable building projects within the State of Kuwait in accordance with GSAS standards. It started off with a welcome address by Mr. Abdullah AlMutairi (CEO EnerTech) who welcomed Dr. Yousef Allhorr and appreciated his presence at the occasion of the significant inaugural workshop in a series of many to come by the two partnering organisations.

Dr. Yousef Alhorr thanked EnerTech Company for organizing the session and began by listing the environmental challenges in GCC and the benefits of adoption to green buildings standards. This was followed by a detailed description of the development process of GSAS as well as the GSAS tools and resources. The barriers to green buildings implementation were also discussed during the session. He said,

One of GSAS main objectives is the dissemination of awareness for all who are working in the construction industry and indeed for all people living in the world, about the importance of behaving sustainably which can lead to conserving natural resources, protecting the environment, and improving human wellbeing.

Holding such a workshop in Kuwait is good news toward spilling over the sustainability concepts according to GSAS standards, and the understanding of the syndicates, associations and engineering society in the Arab world, the importance of increasing the cognitive awareness in GSAS standards and its application in their own countries in order to preserve natural resources and improve the manners and practices in managing and constructing developments.

Towards the end, Dr. Yousef Alhorr presented the case studies of GSAS certified projects in Qatar & Kuwait followed by a Q&A session.

Mr. Salah AlAyoubi (Director Marketing & Communications GORD) also spoke about two of GORD’s initiatives for engagement of the sustainability community: the LinkMe online portal and the upcoming annual event in October: Sustainability Summit 2018 where practitioners, experts, regulators and researchers come together to discuss various topics on sustainability and climate change.

The workshop was attended by around 100 delegates including a number of EnerTech employees as well as engineers, architects and other professionals who will be working on projects aiming GSAS certification. At the end, all delegates received a certificate of ACGP (Associate Certified Green Professional) by GORD Academy – one of the three GORD’s Centers of Excellence offering capacity building programs to create lifelong learning environment for practitioners and professionals working in the built environment.