Cundall achieves world-first carbon neutral certification
Global multi-disciplinary engineering consultancy, Cundall, was certified carbon neutral in September – the first consultancy in the world to achieve this Carbon Trust certification.
All direct emissions resulting from the business, indirect emissions from the purchase of electricity, and all business travel are included in the calculation of the practice’s carbon footprint across all its offices in MENA, United Kingdom, Asia, Australia, Europe, and Ireland.
In order to meet the requirements of the internationally accepted PAS 2060 Standard for carbon neutrality, Cundall undertook a detailed carbon footprint analysis of its entire business operations and set science-based targets to achieve absolute reduction against all three scopes approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative.
The business started by improving the operational efficiency of its offices by reducing demand for energy and business travel within the business. It then improved the efficiency of lighting, controls and metering across all its offices, as well as opting for low-carbon transport alternatives. The business then purchased renewable electricity for its tenancies and negotiated with its landlords to do the same. As a final step – and last resort – Cundall purchased accredited and credible carbon offsets with environmental and social benefits to offset any remaining emissions.
Achieving carbon neutrality across the entire business is the first step in Cundall’s ambition of becoming a carbon positive business by 2025. This target was originally established in 2012, when Cundall became the world’s first consultancy to be formally endorsed as a One Planet Company by sustainability charity, BioRegional. Since then, the business has become a founding signatory of the World Green Building Council’s (WGBC) Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment, and further confirmed its commitment to climate positive action by working with its clients to deliver net zero carbon buildings.
Cundall Australia has led this charge by achieving net zero carbon certification for its Australian offices under the Climate Active program in 2019. Now, Cundall Global has been certified against the internationally recognised PAS 2060 standard across its worldwide operations by the Carbon Trust. Cundall Global intends to continue reducing its emissions and lowering the need for offsets in the coming years, as well as delivering net zero carbon buildings and infrastructure.
Tomás Neeson, Managing Partner at Cundall, said: “This is an important milestone for our business, but it is not the end of the journey. We are dedicated to being a world leader in sustainability, and achieving carbon neutrality across our entire business is just the first step of many that we will take to ensure that we lead by example and help the built environment meet its net zero carbon responsibilities. This includes working with clients and our industry peers to set the standard for achieving net zero carbon in every aspect of our work – from design and material selection, to construction, operation, and end of building life.
“The purchase of offsets is a short-term solution, and we are dedicated to becoming a carbon positive business by 2025 by continuing to address our whole carbon footprint and reducing our emissions until the need to offset is eliminated. For now, we have ensured that we are investing in the most credible and ethical offsets available.
“Earlier this year, we named 2020 ‘The Year of Net Zero’, and we had high hopes for what the industry could achieve over this 12-month period. While Covid-19 has certainly altered the course of the conversation, we believe we can still achieve what we set out to do, starting with this investment in our own net zero future.”
Hugh Jones, Managing Director Business Services at the Carbon Trust, said: “We are pleased to have certified Cundall as carbon neutral and are happy to see it has achieved its 2020 carbon neutrality goal as part of its commitment to sustainability. We hope other consultancies are inspired to follow suit.”
King Salman Energy Park receives LEED Silver certification
King Salman Energy Park (SPARK) in Saudi Arabia has become the first industrial city in the world to receive Silver level accreditation for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).
The LEED certification strengthens SPARK’s ability to 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 city’s integrated sustainability practices, which are at the heart of the community’s planning.
SPARK President & CEO, Saif S. Al Qahtani, said: “SPARK is distinguishing itself as a leading global energy, industrial and technology hub, cementing Saudi Arabia’s position as a progressive innovator in these fields on the international stage. The certification reaffirms our commitment to reducing the city’s carbon footprint. 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.”
Strategically located at the heart of Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, SPARK’s vision is to be the primary gateway to the regional energy sector. Its technologically-advanced ecosystem offers investors unmatched supply-chain efficiency and has been designed to provide an ultramodern “plug and play” infrastructure. As well as targeting large corporations, SPARK also caters to small and medium-sized enterprises and provides support through its SPARK SME Hub, creating a tailored microcosm for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). 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.
DIFC’s Gate Avenue awarded LEED Gold Certification
Dubai International Financial Centre’s (DIFC) Gate Avenue has been awarded the prestigious LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold accreditation from the US Green Building Council and Green Building Certification Inc. This prestigious LEED Gold certification marks the DIFC’s continued commitment to sustainability by ensuring assets reduce their carbon footprint. The achievement ensures DIFC continues to distinguish itself with world class infrastructure.
LEED is the most widely used sustainable buildings rating system in the world, providing a framework for healthy, highly efficient and cost-saving sustainable buildings. It recognises only those projects that follow high environmental standards of sustainability; water and energy efficiency; optimum utilisation of materials and resources and healthy indoor environment quality, which leads to the reduction of global greenhouse gases.
Gate Avenue was awarded the LEED Gold certification for successfully fulfilling the prerequisites and credits across nine measurements for building excellence from integrative design to human health to material use. This was made possible by the expertise and support of AESG – the firm that delivered the LEED consultancy services for the project. Through AESG’s expert advice, supported by onsite management and testing, Gate Avenue, DIFC met LEED’s high standards across all of its categories, reflecting the best practices applied in this development.
Spanning 286,000 square feet of built up area and 880 metres in total length, Gate Avenue at DIFC is quickly becoming part of one of Dubai’s most sought after lifestyle destinations featuring more than 200 leading lifestyle, retail, art, fashion, food & beverage brands, and the modern grand mosque. Gate Avenue links the podium levels of all buildings located in the Centre, from The Gate Building to Central Park Towers.
AESG worked to incorporate several innovative features by strategically selecting credits with high sustainability impact and minimal design impact. The credits pursued, such as water reduction are regionally relevant. The building underwent fundamental and enhanced commissioning for efficiency and performance. Furthermore, materials with high recycled content, including concrete, steel and glass have been installed to reduce embodied carbon emissions. High occupancy density rooms include CO2 sensors provide a fresh air supply. A
Commenting on the announcement, Saleh Al Akrabi, CEO, DIFC Property Management said: “We are proud that Gate Avenue at DIFC has been awarded the prestigious LEED Gold Certification. Providing world class sustainable infrastructure, which includes Gate Avenue forms part of DIFC’s commitment to becoming the region’s most sustainable financial centre. We look forward to continuing to build a more sustainable and resilient Centre for our community of more than 25,000 professionals and for all those who visit for business and leisure.”
“AESG is thrilled to have provided LEED and sustainability consultancy services for this impressive development. This LEED Gold certification is validation of the team’s significant efforts and commitment to ensuring the development is environmentally and socially responsible. It is this shift towards high performance buildings in the construction sector that will have a lasting and positive impact both now and for generations to come”, said Phillipa Grant, Director of Energy and Sustainability at AESG.
Cigna’s UAE head office receives WELL Gold Certification
In order to build a healthier, more sustainable workplace for its employees, Cigna has achieved the WELL Gold accreditation by the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) for Cigna’s headquarters in the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC). This makes Cigna the first global health services company in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to achieve this certification. Cigna Corporation is a global health service company dedicated to helping people improve their health, well-being, and peace of mind.
This prestigious distinction marks Cigna’s continued focus on adopting and promoting employee well-being in the workplace. AESG supported Cigna by providing WELL consultancy services for the project.
Isil Ata, head of human resources at Cigna Middle East & Africa said: “Achieving the WELL Gold certification is a proud moment for Cigna. It symbolises our commitment not just in our role as global leaders in the health and well-being industry but also a promise to our employees to continue providing a better and more holistic workplace that improves their health and positively impacts their overall well-being. A healthy work environment increases efficiency and productivity, which reinforces the need for a sustainable workplace. The timing of this is especially relevant as employees now return to work in the new normal. We will continue to build a safe and healthy environment for employees as they return to work and ensure our workplace wellness programs address employee needs.”
“We are proud to have been appointed as WELL consultants to help Cigna achieve the WELL Gold certification and LEED precertification. This has been an accomplishment that emphasises our commitment to supporting our clients in promoting sustainability, health and well-being,” said Saeed Al Abbar, managing director at AESG.
The 20,000sqft premises is a fully-fledged office space that will accommodate more than 200 Cigna employees across the company’s group health and individual private medical insurance (IPMI) businesses. AESG worked to incorporate several innovative design features in the Cigna MENA head office, many of which are first in the region. Through the implementation of design features such as circadian lighting design, low-glare workstations, increased ventilation and advanced air filtration, the team have ensured a healthy and comfortable indoor working environment. An extensive education and awareness campaign, including wall art and signage, post-occupant surveys and incentive programs, contribute towards engagement with Cigna employees on wider physical and mental health issues to promote a healthier, happier lifestyle for all.
City Centre Almaza in Egypt awarded LEED Gold certification
CallisonRTKL (CRTKL), has announced that its project, City Centre Almaza (CCA), has received LEED-Gold certification from the US Green Building Council (USGBC). The certification was awarded to one of the biggest retail malls in Egypt commending its sustainable design, construction, and operation standards.
The project comes in line with CRTKL’s, a global consultancy specialised in architecture, design and technology commitment to performance-driven-design organisation, applying technical advancements to enhance and optimise design solutions that contribute to a more sustainable and productive environment. With the use of sustainable strategies and designs, energy savings, water efficiency and CO2 emissions reduction, the shopping centre has been classified as one of high environmental quality.
CRTKL Shopping and Entertainment District’s Director, Nick Guy, said: “Throughout the first few years of a building’s lifetime, there is a lot of focus on the energy in use as shopping centres are heavy energy consumers. While designing the City Centre Almaza shopping centre, the design team operated with energy efficiency in mind as we saw significant opportunities for savings in line with region-wide efforts to tackle sustainability challenges.”
“One of our particular design focus areas was allowing the right amount of daylight into the building without creating unnecessary heat gain. As such, we adopted a predominately clerestory glazing strategy, keeping overhead roof-lights to a minimum. This gave good natural ambient light-levels with some shafts of sunlight allowed without compromising the environmental systems,” he concluded.
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