Abstract
Buildings account for 40-odd percent of energy use, 25% of water consumption and one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions. With such a staggering impact, real estate holds tremendous economic, social and environmental potentialities for the global development agenda. This chapter intends to provide an overview of sustainable real estate in the Middle East by focusing on the state of the industry and identifying the challenges faced by the region. Finally, the trends shaping the future of sustainable real estate are discussed. In conclusion, the initiatives put forth so far have been on an ad hoc rather than systematic basis and the Middle East sustainable real estate industry is still in an incipient state.
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- 1.
The World Green Building Council, founded in 1998, is composed of national councils from 12 countries. Based on the 2015/2016 annual report by the WorldGBC, buildings account for over 30% of carbon dioxide emissions and use about 14% of the world’s drinking water.
- 2.
Data retrieved from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) database on 1 May 2017.
- 3.
See footnote 2.
- 4.
Based on the official statistical information provided by World Population Review in 2017, Tehran city has a population around 8,604,000. Retrieved 11 May 2017, from http://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/tehran-population/.
- 5.
The Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 presupposes high population growth and relatively slow income growth with modest rates of energy intensity improvements and technological change, leading to high-energy demand and emissions in the long term if no climate change policies are put forth.
- 6.
The effects of forced immigration and the ongoing conflict in Syria have not been factored into the urban population growth estimate for the country.
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Rahdari, A., Mehan, A., Malekpourasl, B. (2019). Sustainable Real Estate in the Middle East: Challenges and Future Trends. In: Walker, T., Krosinsky, C., Hasan, L.N., Kibsey, S.D. (eds) Sustainable Real Estate. Palgrave Studies in Sustainable Business In Association with Future Earth. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94565-1_16
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