Dubai - Awareness of the need to save energy and water and protect the environment is growing among Middle East businesses and property developers, a leading Dubai-based energy management company said today after experiencing a bumper year for business growth.
Energy Management Services (EMS), which first set up in 1996 with offices in Dubai and Jordan, opened new branches in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain during 2006 on the back of increasing demand across the region for innovations to improve energy efficiency.
EMS, which currently manages more than 500 energy management projects throughout the Middle East, estimates that on average it can reduce companies' utility bills by 20 - 30 per cent by using technology to cut their consumption of electricity, water and gas.
The company will be exhibiting at FM EXPO taking place from June 3 - 5 at Dubai International Exhibition Centre and organised by Streamline Marketing Group. The event is now in its second year and is the first exhibition in the region to be dedicated to facilities management, the integrated management of all types of built environments from commercial towers, resorts and hotels to oil refineries and hospitals.
Khaled Bushnaq, CEO of EMS, said: "At the beginning of the development boom in the Gulf, the focus for property developers was on who was going to build the tallest tower or the largest shopping mall. Now we are beginning to see a move away from that to an emphasis on who is constructing the most environmentally-friendly buildings. Developers are attracted by the reductions in capital and operational costs they can make by becoming energy efficient but there is also increasing evidence of a genuine desire to act responsibly with regards to the environment." He said more developers and companies in the Middle East were working towards achieving LEED certification, which is entirely voluntary and has been developed by the United States Green Building Council to identify sustainable and efficient buildings.
The services offered by EMS include conducting energy audits on existing buildings to identify appropriate energy-saving measures and analysis of new facilities at the design stage to reduce construction costs and future energy and water usage. The energy saving measures recommended by EMS can include efficient lighting, reduced air-conditioning consumption, efficient boilers, decreasing refrigeration costs, reduction of heat loss and installing renewable energy sources such as solar panels and windmills.
© The Peninsula 2007
