Saudi energy park SPARK achieves LEED certification

The King Salman Energy Park (SPARK) in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia has received the Silver Level accreditation for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).

The LEED program is an internationally-recognised green building certification system, which verifies that buildings are designed to improve performance across key sustainability metrics such as energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impact.

With the LEED certification, SPARK can confidently support future tenants and investors on their journey towards LEED certification of their facilities, as part of a fully-integrated energy community. It also affirms the project’s integrated sustainability practices, which have been integrated into the community’s planning.

Located in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, SPARK’s vision is to be the primary gateway to the regional energy sector. As well as targeting large corporations, SPARK also caters to small and medium-sized enterprises and provides support through its SPARK SME Hub. This allows streamlined and cost-effective operations near major workforce providers and close to highway and railway networks. At maturity, it will be home to over 300 industrial, technology and service facilities focused on meeting the demand for energy goods and services across the entire value chain.

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LEED certification is a key step in ensuring that environmentally-sensitive techniques are consistently applied to the construction of SPARK across industrial, commercial and residential facilities. It is part of SPARK’s vision to be a proving ground for green tools and technologies designed to minimise the impact of activities conducted within the city, the most successful of which will serve as a blueprint for the oil and gas industry – as well as for businesses and homes across the country.

“The certification reaffirms our commitment to reducing the city’s carbon footprint,” Saif S. Al Qahtani, SPARK president and CEO said. “LEED communities are in high global demand, as they offer better rates of profitability, productivity and quality of the workplace. Our goal is to create an ecosystem for energy-related companies to grow with minimum environmental impact, and we encourage other industrial cities to follow our lead.”