A pilot project will benchmark energy use in 100 buildings across Dubai. Photo by Achim Fischer/Flickr

Dubai is blazing a new path for cities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by calling attention to energy consumption in buildings and highlighting the lack of data available to benchmark usage rates and measure progress.

In 2016, Dubai joined the BEA and proposed a new policy on energy performance labels for existing buildings. The city government launched a pilot project in February 2017, led by the Emirates Green Building Council and Dubai Supreme Council of Energy, to measure the performance of 100 buildings. The World Green Building Council is a delivery partner for the BEA, supporting its Green Building Councils involved in the program.

To learn more about this endeavor, the first of its kind in the UAE, we sat down with representatives of the Emirates Green Building Council—Operations Director Lora Shrake, Technical Manager Majd Fayyad and Communications Officer Maha Khogali—to gain a better understanding of the project’s progress to date and the collaborative nature of their work.

Read more here.