Dubai Municipality announced it will switch to the Al Saafat building rating system “early next year”.
Circular No 222, issued by the municipality’s buildings department, confirmed the 2018 implementation of the building rating system, which has been developed to encourage high building performance across the planning, design, construction, and operation phases, Construction Week reports.
Al Safaat’s aims include reducing the consumption of electricity by 20%, water by 15%, and carbon dioxide emissions by 20%, as well as encouraging a reduction of waste by up to 50%.
Eng Layali Al Mulla, director of the buildings department, said integration within her unit at the municipality would “ensure quality and accuracy in carrying out construction work that complies” with green building rules and specifications at the licensing and supervision stages.
As per Circular No 222, the green building rating is split into four major classifications, which are platinum, gold, silver, and bronze.
Platinum is the highest rating, and every building must adhere to the minimum bronze category requirements.
General and bronze requirements are mandatory for private residential villas and industrial buildings, while investment villas, public buildings, and multi-storey and floor level buildings must comply with general, bronze, and silver requirements.
Platinum and gold requirements are optional for all types of new buildings.
The Saafat certificate will be valid for three years, and all buildings will be re-evaluated following its expiration, based on official owner requests to do so.
Eng Fida Al Hammadi, head of Dubai Municipality’s researches and building system section, said the agency has licensed more than 3,716ha of green buildings between 2014 and 2017.
The regulations ensure that buildings developed in accordance with their guidelines are energy- and water-efficient, and that waste is reduced during their construction and operation stages, Al Hammadi said.
She added that the buildings department’s circular also paves the way for owners and developers to re-evaluate, under Al Saafat, those buildings that were constructed after 1 July, 2012.
Al Hammadi continued: “A green building evaluation certificate will be issued for the Bronze and Silver Saafat, with the issuance of the certificate of completion if their requirements are met.
“As for the Gold and Platinum Saafat, the owner should submit an application to the esearches and building system section through the Al Saafat website in order to check the systems applied in the building during the operation phase, and during the issuance of the certificate and the installation of the board on the building.”
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