UAE’s Aldar to reduce carbon emissions by 80,000 tons annually across assets

Aldar Properties has launched a portfolio-wide energy management project to reduce its energy consumption by approximately 20 per cent across 80 assets including hotels, schools, commercial, leisure, retail, and residential buildings.

As well as reducing energy emissions, the project will enable Aldar to save approximately Dhs40m per year in energy consumption costs.

The project aims to reduce Aldar’s carbon emissions by 80,000 tons, electricity consumption by 110 GWh, water consumption by 886,000 m3, chilled water consumption by 23,000,000 TRH and gas consumption by 726,000 cubic metres annually.

Aldar’s chief financial and sustainability officer, Greg Fewer, said: “The primary step to achieving this goal is to fully understand our energy consumption and put in place measures to ensure we are efficient across our owned and managed assets.

“As well as the positive environmental impact, sustainability projects like this are also good for business. This project is a clear-cut case where the time and effort invested into sustainability initiatives can yield strong financial returns.”

He added that Aldar has partnered with established energy service companies (ESCOs) to help it achieve a significant reduction in energy emissions.

The company awarded five-year energy performance contracts to four ESCOs, including Siemens, Enova, ENGIE (in collaboration with Tabreed), and Johnson Controls (in collaboration with Alliances for Global Sustainability).

Each ESCO will be responsible for a portfolio of buildings, while grfn global has been appointed as the project management consultant.

In the upcoming phase of the project, the ESCOs will carry out retrofit projects across all 80 assets with an expected completion date in Q3 2022.

Upon its successful completion, the ESCOs are required to accomplish the guaranteed energy savings for a period of five years. The measurement and verification of the savings will be done as per the guidance provided in International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol.

In other news, Aldar Properties has entered into an agreement with Diamond Developers, to form a JV for the development of The Sustainable City – Yas Island.

Read: Aldar to develop Dhs1.8bn The Sustainable City – Yas Island project in Abu Dhabi

In related developments, the company also recently increased its environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings within two major global benchmarks, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) and Sustainalytics.

Read more: Aldar gains ground within two global ESG benchmarks