Dubai: If Dubai is home to the tallest, the largest, and everything else worthy of the record books, it can also have the "most sustainable" commercial building in the world — The Change Initiative (TCI) — on Shaikh Zayed Road.
TCI is a 4,000-square-metre shop that provides sustainable solutions in Dubai. It has secured the highest LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum rating from the US Green Building Council (GBC), a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting sustainable buildings worldwide.
TCI achieved 107 points out of 110, making it the most sustainable commercial building in the world. The record was previously held by Pixel, a four-level building in Australia, with 105 points.
“Congratulations on setting a new record with your LEED for Commercial Interiors Platinum project. The store is a great prototype for sustainable real estate applicable worldwide,” S. Richard Fedrizzi, President, CEO and Founding Chairman of the US GBC and Chairman of the World GBC, said in his letter to Gundeep Singh, TCI Founder and CEO.
Upon receiving the certification on Sunday, Singh said that he shares the recognition not only with his team but also with the rest of Dubai.
“I think, not only for us, for the rest of Dubai as a whole, as you see, we have achieved a pinnacle of being sustainable around the world and in a place that is completely paradoxical. Most people believe that Dubai cannot be sustainable or is less sustainable. But we’ve proven that if Dubai can build the tallest, the biggest, then it can also build the most sustainable building,” Singh told Gulf News.
Only one year old, TCI doesn’t only provide environmentally-friendly solutions. It practises what it preaches by incorporating all aspects of green building on its 4,000-square-metre structure from its roofing to energy-efficient lighting to its water system.
TCI has 26 technologies, including solar panels and heat-reflective paint, on its roof that provides 40 per cent of the building’s energy requirements. Its outer structure has insulation three times more than that of a normal building; all its windows have heat-reflective films; water in the building is re-used and recycled; and most of the materials used for the building’s interiors are recycled.
This high LEED Platinum rating is not the first in Dubai, which is also home to the Dewa (Dubai Electricity and Water Authority) Sustainable Building, the largest government building in the world with 98 out of 110 points.
