Environment & Energy | Saturday 17 January, 2015 2:57 am |

Saudi Arabia has captured 15 percent of the green building projects in the Middle East, Faisal Al-Fadl, head of the Initiative of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques for Green Building, told media.

The Kingdom currently has more than 300 projects out of 2,000 green projects spread throughout the Middle Eastern countries, he told Al-Sharq Al-Awsat daily.
He said the area occupied by the green buildings in the Kingdom exceeded 20 million square meters by the end of last year (2014) but is expected to double in the current year.
The majority of the green building projects are located in Riyadh with investments estimated at SR200 billion, he was quoted as saying.

He said the projects are aimed to boost the culture of green building in the community and foster concepts of sustainability, environment and humanity.
He appreciated steps taken by the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs on formulating technical guidelines of green buildings in the Kingdom which were emphasized by the ministry at the recently-concluded Saudi forum on green buildings.

Earlier, the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs announced it was working out the technical requirements for the construction of green buildings Kingdom-wide with the intent of realizing sustainable urban development and a balanced environment by using natural resources in a bid to minimize the adverse environmental impacts of buildings and rationalize the use of energy in line with the regional and international efforts to this end.