Tools track air quality, energy performance, and more on infrastructure projects in the UAE

Image courtesy Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure (MOEI), United Arab Emirates

Policy approach(es) used to catalyse investment: Development of a national, regional, or sectoral InfraTech strategy 

Technology approach(es) used to catalyse investment: Implementation of a data platform or digital twin for greater transparency over performance  

Finance approach(es) used to catalyse investment: Public investment

The Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure (MOEI), United Arab Emirates developed the sustainability tools to help project teams track, document, and monitor data relating to sustainability during the project lifecycle and to improve decisionmaking. The sustainability tools support the Sustainability Strategy for MOEI: the UAE Energy Strategy 2050 aims to increase the contribution of clean energy in the total energy mix from 25% to 50% by 2050 and reduce the carbon footprint of power generation by 70%, and the UAE Water Security Strategy 2036 aims to reduce average consumption per capita by half.  

The MOEI – represented by the Studies, Research, and Development (R&D) Department – contracted Alpin Limited to develop and implement the sustainability tools in MOEI projects. The implementation of the tools will be carried out in cooperation with the design, execution, and Studies, the R&D team from the MOEI, and the project consultant.

The tools inform the project team about project air quality and carbon emissions during the project lifecycle to ensure that there is a least a 5% reduction in the project’s embodied carbon compared to business-as-usual practices. Additionally, the project team will be able to document the indoor and outdoor water consumption of the proposed building and determine the percentage reduction over the baseline. The energy performance tool will be used to display and check the energy model inputs and calculate the number of credit points achieved based on the energy modelling results. The expected reduction in energy is 45% for road projects and 16% for buildings projects.

The project team will also be able to track and document the waste diverted from landfills on a monthly basis over the full duration of the construction phase. As one of the MOEI sustainability initiatives is developing and implementing sustainability guidelines on its projects, a submission checklist has been developed for the purpose of checking if the Ministry guideline requirements are targeted in the project.  

Replicability

The sustainability tools will be implemented and used in all MoEI projects from roads, and buildings to housing projects. The tools complement sustainability guidelines which will be mandatory for all MOEI projects. Through tracking and documenting they will help the project team to prove that all requirements in the guideline are met and applied in the right way. 

Other approaches that enabled investment

Policy

The sustainable procurement policy that was developed in MOEI is considered one of the enablers of the success of the sustainability tools because it considers the social, economic, and environmental consequences of what is procured through all stages of a project lifecycle including:

• Design
• Resource extraction and sourcing
• Manufacturing and production
• Transportation
• Service delivery
• Operation and maintenance
• Reuse
• Recycling

Sustainable procurement also considers the capacity of suppliers to operate sustainably and the consequences throughout the supply chain. In addition to contributing to the social, economic, and environmental wellbeing of people and places, sustainable supply chain management can deliver additional benefits to MOEI that stimulate the market and encourage innovation for sustainable products and services, and support the local supply community by engaging with small and medium enterprises to compete for MOEI contracts. The policy applies to ongoing consumables, building materials, and electronic equipment.

Technology

The tools developed help to monitor and document certain parameters of all MOEI projects. Hence, valuable data will be available for MOEI that can be used as inputs for new algorithms or technology.

Note: This case study and all information within was submitted by the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure (MOEI), United Arab Emirates in response to our global call for InfraTech case studies.