Sustainability has become a pressing global issue, and as responsible industry leaders, it is essential for us to address the environmental, social, and economic aspects of our projects. By adopting sustainable practices, we can create lasting positive impacts on the environment, enhance the well-being of communities, and drive long term profitability.
In this special feature, we focus on sustainability in the construction industry in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Turner & Townsend
Shining the Greenlight: Promoting Sustainable Construction Practices in Saudi Arabia by Lindsey Malcolm, Associate Director and Sustainability Lead, Middle East, Turner & Townsend
Although sustainable development is a crucial and necessary requirement in the modern construction industry, barriers remain to the widespread adoption of this practice. As we race to avert a climate crisis, enhancing and embedding sustainability requirements on major construction projects and programmes should be our industry’s top priority.
Looking at the Saudi Arabian construction industry, which is experiencing extraordinary growth at the moment, projects of unprecedented scope and concept are being designed and delivered. At the heart of all this development is Saudi Arabia’s 2030 Vision and its desire to establish a vibrant society, thriving economy, and ambitious nation.
Such forward-thinking should consider not only what is to be accomplished by 2030, but also how that will serve as a foundation for the nation’s development over the coming decades.
As a specialist who has worked on projects in the region for the past 15 years, I have witnessed first-hand how sustainability has been perceived, as well as how it is influences the procurement and delivery of projects. Looking at Saudi’s strategy, one can spot the fundamental principles of sustainable development: long-term reasoning, resilience, and efficiency.
With just under $52 billion in contract awards, according to the US-Saudi Business Council, the market for initiatives in the Kingdom is vast, with as many as 14 ‘giga-projects’ in the pipeline. Some of these schemes will provide new places to live and work for current Saudi residents, and some will also need to cater to those moving to the country in the coming decades.
All these projects will start taking shape over the next six years, but based on their current forms, not all will be sustainable in the long run. Resolving this will require architects, designers, engineers, specialists, contractors, owners, and operators to play their part in the present day, ensuring that the Saudi construction industry as a whole can achieve optimal performance in terms of cost, carbon, schedule, and quality.
Energy and water management across all portfolios will be a crucial consideration for owners and operators over the coming years. The growth of development increases the demand for resources, with the supply of energy and water being limited and their distribution fragmented.Thus climate-responsible design and resource consumption efficiency should be central to all new development initiatives, in addition to informing the revitalisation and refurbishment of existing assets.
Owners and operators need to ensure they have the data surveillance and collection mechanisms in place to monitor resource consumption, as well as putting the organisational structures in place to integrate and act on the observed findings. If all new projects embed effective control systems right at the asset level, these can then be scaled upwards to the infrastructure systems which support community, master plan, and city scales.
The magnitude of development in Saudi Arabia is likely to have a significant impact on global supply chains, particularly those for primary construction materials like concrete, steel, aluminium, and glass. The production, transportation, and processing of these materials is carbon-intensive, but they are also significant contributors to construction waste.
According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, building construction and refurbishment alone account for 11 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions, owing primarily to material production and use. With an average of 15 percent of building materials being wasted, there is much opportunity for improvement in managing construction waste.
To measure the impact of emissions related to construction, we need to commit to looking at the whole lifecycle of carbon and conducting embodied carbon assessments on all projects.
Government and development organisations mandating these assessments will aid in their adoption in the region. As we gain a better understanding of embodied emissions, we can begin to incorporate carbon-based decision-making into the design and development processes. Taking a whole lifecycle perspective, we can align carbon and cost impacts for different scenarios and use the results to inform business decisions about scale, structure, strategy, and approach.
The second benefit of this carbon measurement activity is that it will help kickstart the collection of data defining every aspect of our built environment. When we combine materials management and digitisation, we have ability to identify and create value from the materials embodied in our assets, which can inform opportunities for retrofit and refurbishment, as well as demonstrating end-of-life value.
To get to the point where climate-responsible design is the norm, we need to leverage the power of a greener supply chain and procurement models, and increase the visibility and transparency of sustainability requirements and expectations.
This can be accomplished by placing a greater emphasis on procurement processes and better engagement with the supply chain. By integrating sustainability concepts into prequalification and selection processes, consultants and contractors can be filtered and selected in a transparent and efficient manner.
In the first instance, we should be increasing awareness of the significance and necessity of sustainability for the project and parties involved in its daily operations. Over time, increased stringency of requirements, whether based on type and methods of disclosure, experience, and technical comprehension, will shape the conversation between contractor and client.
Those contractors with the willingness to collaborate with the client on mid- to long-term decarbonisation initiatives should be rewarded. We don’t need to start at 100 percent compliance, but we do need to engage in dialogue with the supply chain and subject matter experts to determine where we are and where we need to go.
With the built environment being a key enabler of net-zero ambitions, we must act soon and harness the power of procurement and proactive supply chain management. Taking a timely approach to sustainable procurement can help clients integrate sustainability into their programmes, projects, and established supply chains right from the outset.
All of the above contributes to the overall net-zero trajectory, bolstering the socioeconomic objective, and providing the potential for truly sustainable growth. With ambitious national agendas, as well as the UAE hosting COP28 this year, the region has a great chance to influence the future of the industry.
But getting there means measuring progress and monitoring impact through robust data collection, validation, and coordinated action. Moreover, sustainable procurement has the potential to foster the development of flourishing new economies centred on circularity, operational management, modern construction techniques, and digitalisation. That is an evergreen legacy worth pursuing.
