Of the world’s 60,000 green buildings, some 4 per cent are in the GCC. Of those, already 12 per cent are in Saudi Arabia, and there is clear scope for many more.

The kingdom is by far the most populous of the GCC countries. It is not short of the financial and economic resources necessary to implement a major advance in the use of architectural and construction techniques that make prudent use of resources and seek to minimise their impact upon the environment and their consumption of water and electricity.

But translating possibility into practical, widespread implementation requires an evolution in thinking across business and society – and that needs promotional skills, encouragement, public education and influence.

Catalyst for change

This is where the Saudi Green Buildings Forum (SGBF) comes in.

This non-governmental organisation is soon to announce the creation of a supporting Trust Fund Foundation – a move that may seem abstract, but which its chairman, Faisal al-Fadl, believes can powerfully enhance its capacity to influence attitudes to architecture and construction across the kingdom.

The forum does not make policy or set rules, Al-Fadl is quick to point out. Instead it sees its role as one of encouragement. “We are a forum and we have stakeholders,” he tells MEED. “We are a catalyst for change.”

But this means a lot more than just than cheering from the sidelines, because the SGBF also provides practical help for architects, developers and construction firms – and their clients – who are seeking to adopt more green techniques.

The Forum has been entrusted with acting as the Saudi reference for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) –the world’s most widely recognised standards for green construction and architecture.

Public influence

But in itself, the task of shaping attitudes is an important one, because it is obviously not possible for the Saudi government to take over all new construction in the kingdom and implement it along green lines. Much of the tasks of new urban development and the erection of buildings must fall to private sector businesses or individuals.

If the kingdom is to gradually increase the proportion of buildings that are constructed in ways that minimise environmental impact and make careful use of resources, new ideas will have to gain widespread adherence. SGBF is particularly well-placed to promote these, because its agenda has strong backing from the country’s leadership.

The forum’s new Trust Fund Foundation is supported by King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud. It is being established under a deed from the Justice Ministry and its chairman will be the governor of Riyadh, Prince Turki bin Abdullah. Al-Fadl is also secretary-general of the King Abdullah Initiative for Green Buildings – launched by the King in 2010.

Saudi tradition

In promoting the concept of green building, the SGBF has another powerful ally: Saudi tradition.

Although recent decades have been characterised by modern development on a massive scale, historical concepts of building in the kingdom were based mostly on using local materials and designing structures to offer inbuilt protection against extreme heat or cold.

“Green building is rooted in Saudi culture,” says Al-Fadl. “Go back to the future and visit these things.”

And now he believes there is an opportunity to build on these underlying traditions by providing incentives for green building and encouragement for citizens to reduce their consumption of water and energy. This will be the task of the government.

“The SGBF is not a policymaker. We look for policies from the government that we can adopt,” says Al-Fadl. The Municipalities and Rural Affairs Ministry, headed by Prince Mansoor bin Mitaeb, is due to produce a new policy document on this issue by 2015.

Practical progress

This will arrive in a Saudi environment that has already changed substantially over recent years, with the forum and its allies spreading awareness of the need to conserve resources and protect the planet, and there has been a consequent impact on architecture.

“When we started in Saudi Arabia, we had zero green buildings,” says Al-Fadl.

The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) was the only green building in the Kingdom when the King Abdullah Initiative was launched in 2010.

“Today, we have more than 14 million square metres of green building, more than 200 buildings that are green and the world’s largest district of green buildings.”

This district is the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD), which will provide 1.6 million square metres of space in 34 towers in Riyadh.

Altogether there are at least 40 green buildings in the capital. And across Saudi Arabia as a whole there are now several green hotels and schools too. Meanwhile, the SGBF is advising Mecca city on how to develop its infrastructure on a sustainable basis.

Need for ingenuity

But the practical delivery of green policies requires ingenuity and imagination. For example, Al-Fadl suggests that mosques can be pioneer examples of how old buildings could be adapted. “A problem with mosques is that we have parking lots, which are heat islands, so it makes more sense to introduce small electric cars to bring local people and older people to the mosques,” he says.

Only two of Saudi Arabia’s green projects are LEED certified, according to the US Green Building Council, and in the kingdom, the SGBF is working to encourage more developers to adopt international principles. “We are not trying to promote national standards…. We are working on promoting LEED,” says Al-Fadl.

“We administer the LEED certification scheme and we can recommend forum member companies who could provide the technical advice. Once the project is done, SGBF will do the review and issue the certification. It is in our interest to protect our local know-how and our local members.” The forum also operates the Saaf scheme (Saaf means “palm leaf” in Arabic and stands for Saudi Arabian Accredited Fund). This gives green labels to products such as construction materials.

The kingdom is getting greener, and awareness is growing. Through revisiting traditional methods and embracing new technology and learnings, it looks likely to continue to become more environmentally friendly, with Faisal al-Fadl and the SGBF leading the charge.