On 26 November 2017, the opening day of Sustainability Summit 2017, at Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Doha-Qatar, Gulf Organisation for Research and Development (GORD) signed a memorandum of understanding with Kuwait Public Transport Company (KPTC) to establish collaboration for Global Sustainability Assessment System (GSAS) related activities. The MoU was signed by Dr. Yousef Alhorr (Founding Chairman GORD) and Mr. Abdullah Saleh Abdulla NASER (Executive Director for Transport Affairs).

Under the MoU, the two organisations will evaluate the possibility of developing collaboration for a number of activities including deployment of GSAS in KPTC projects, education of KPTC staff through training courses, workshops and seminars and other joint projects according to mutual agreement.

Commenting on the collaboration, Dr. Yousef Alhorr (Founding Chairman GORD) said,

GORD is pleased to partner with KPTC towards implementing sustainability best practices in the field of mass transit. Our objective is to achieve a balance between the growing requirements of development and the preservation of the environment via GSAS – the Global Sustainability Assessment System, which has been designed to comply with the specific needs of the Gulf region.

Kuwait Public Transport Company was established by Emiri Decree No (60) in 1962 to carry out all mass transit operations inside and outside Kuwait and the mass transit of the Kuwaiti islands, purchase and sale of all types of buses and any means necessary for public transport by land and sea and establishment of any industry related to public transport by land and sea. The company’s ISO international certification drives it to achieve higher levels of customer satisfaction and to continue developing its services through comprehensive training plans and programs for all its employees.

GSAS is the first performance-based system in the MENA region, developed for rating the green buildings and infrastructures. The primary objective of GSAS is to create a sustainable built environment, considering the specific needs and context of the region. Its integrated project life-cycle approach assesses sustainability through all 3 phases of a project namely, Design, Construction and Operations. GSAS Railways is one of the numerous schemes used for rating the sustainability and ecological impacts of new main station buildings including spaces that serve various functions of a railway station such as but not necessarily limited to platform/concourse, offices, station control room, ticketing, retail, food/beverage areas, and ancillary areas.