Saudi Arabia now has the largest number of planned projects in the Middle East registered as compliant with green building ratings, MEED’s Saudi Mega Projects’ sustainability, energy efficiency and clean energy day was told on 8 December.

“There are 139 completed LEED [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design] buildings in the Middle East and about 1,000 are registered to be green buildings,” said Mario Seneviratne, US Green Building Council representative and US-based Green Technologies’ managing director.

The conference was told that about 400 projects in Saudi Arabia have or have applied for green building status. “Saudi Arabia will have the most number of [green] buildings in the region,” said Seneviratne.

He said work on Saudi Basic Industries Corporation’s (Sabic’s) Home of Innovation demonstration house has been completed in Riyadh’s Techno Valley.

“This is the first LEED platinum home in the Middle East and the first in the world to be a platinum home and a net zero,” Seneviratne said. “This means this home is a prototype because it will not be taking electricity from the grid for a year.”

Sabic is due to complete 615 LEED silver-rated homes at the Al-Waseel Hills project in Riyadh in 2016, he said. Hundreds of LEED-rated homes are being built in the King Abdulaziz University faculty housing project in Jeddah.

Seneviratne said these schemes were developed voluntarily rather than as a result of government direction.

“Regulations will deliver buildings with 15-20 per cent energy savings,” he said. “But if you do it voluntarily, you can get up to 60 per cent and even 100 per cent energy savings. Green buildings work if people understand them and the industry understands them and they do it voluntarily.”