A comprehensive assessment of Dubai's new green building rating system: Al Sa'fat

Abstract

In line with the global trend towards the enhancement of energy efficiency in buildings, Al Sa'fat Green Building Rating System (GBRS) was introduced by Dubai's government to curve the excessive energy consumption pattern exhibited in buildings. The current study proposes a comprehensive framework to qualitatively and quantitively evaluate GBRSs, Al Sa'fat in this case, through three main phases of analysis. The first phase involves a qualitative analysis of Al Sa'fat in comparison to international, regional and local GBRSs. In the second, Al Sa'fat's energy performance is evaluated across three local building archetypes, including a villa, an office building, and a hotel building. The third and last phase is a macro-scale analysis of the financial impact of the application of Al Sa'fat on Dubai's building stock. The results show that Al Sa'fat has a clear bias towards energy efficiency and does not prioritize water. Furthermore, it shows very little differentiation between its levels of certification (i.e., bronze, silver, gold, and platinum), with the major differences being qualitative rather than quantitative. On a macro scale, the adoption of Al Sa'fat is estimated to save between 175.6 and 1,055 Billion AED over the next 25 years, depending on the primary source of energy used to generate electricity.

Date of Award	May 2020
Original language	American English