Green buildings for the rich gain ground in Beirut
BEIRUT: Water tables are plummeting and air temperatures are soaring and Lebanon’s real estate sector – a cornerstone of the Lebanese economy – is slowly but surely beginning to realize that a major answer to global warming lies in the way they go about their work.
There are three main incentives for a building to “go green,” said Nader Nakib CEO of green building consultancy group G-Building. These are known in the business as the “Tripple Bottom Line:” financial, social and environmental. In the medium-term, explains Nakib, a green building beneficiary can enjoy low operation costs and a boost to the self-esteem while saving on environmental resources.
“We’re trying to adapt people to consume less,” Nakib said in an interview with The Daily Star.
From his corner office in the Al-Shurooq building of Qintari, Nakib laid out some of the benefits of greening construction in a city that has hosted one of the most concentrated urban development feats in the world.
He has carved out a work space compliant with international environmental standards inside a non-green building, in hopes of inspiring other Beiruti businesspeople to adopt their own green ventures amid piles of concrete that are decidedly not green.
“It makes a lot of business sense to go green,” said Nakib, particularly with a subsidy recently launched by the Central Bank, guaranteeing that at least 15 percent of the construction costs of any internationally certified green-endeavor be obtained interest-free.
G-Building has worked closely with the Central Bank to foster a more green friendly urban landscape, while at the same time seeking out ‘business pioneers’ who will help to create new benchmarks in the Real Estate industry that will squeeze competitors into adopting green technologies.
In the high-end Saifi neighborhood, for example, G-Building is helping to lay the groundwork for a cluster of green-compliant buildings named District S. The “district” is crisscrossed by pedestrian passageways and encircled by bike racks, a testament to the environmentally conscious behaviors it says it wants to promote.
It will be only the fifth project in the world to receive the coveted Leader in Energy and Environmental Design certification for neighborhoods, which means that energy costs in those houses will be cut by roughly 70 percent, indoor water by 62 percent, and natural gas by 20 percent.
But a slashing of energy spending does not necessarily mean good news for a buyer’s wallet. Apartments at District S have been priced at nearly $7,000 per meter, which compared to even Lebanon’s spiraling real estate prices, will likely put the overwhelming majority of Lebanese off.
Still, Nakib insists that ‘greening’ is not an enterprise restricted to the rich. The wealthy, he said, are simply pioneers, helping to mainstream green buildings into the Lebanese street.
Happy Home Group
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