International Conference on Sustainable Buildings and Environment returns to Dubai

Dubai, 30th March, 2015 (WAM) -- HH Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum Chancellor of The British University in Dubai (BUiD), will be hosting the Sustainable Buildings and Environment 2016 conference in Dubai for the 2nd time around. Based, on the success of the conference in 2013, the international organizing committee have awarded BUiD the right to host the event in Dubai again with BUiD as the local organizing party. Sustainable Built Environment 2016(SBE16), Dubai conference will take place from January 17 to 19th 2016 and it will be the first of SBE16 series of National Conferences that will take part around the world in 2016. The National Conferences will lead to the Global SBE conference in 2017 in Hong Kong. The conference is supported by international organizations such as the UN-UNEP Sustainable Buildings and Climate Initiative, iiSBE, FIDIC and CIB. The local UAE chapter of the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE-UAE chapter) also supports the conference.

SBE16 Dubai will be held at The British University in Dubai, which is located in the Dubai International Academic City. It will be an International, full-paper peer-reviewed conference with focus on different aspects of sustainability (triple bottom line) including, but not limited to, Guidelines & Regulations, Building Material, Energy Modeling and Conservation, Alternative and Renewable Energy Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality and Comfort, and Social Issues.

Prof Abdullah Alshamsi, Vice-Chancellor of The British University in Dubai extended his gratitude to HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chancellor of The British University in Dubai and the Chairman of Dubai Supreme Council of Energy, for his patronage for the event and his continued support towards establishing a research culture in the UAE. He said, "International Research conferences such as SBE16 will attract some of the best researchers and industry experts to gather under one roof and discuss best practice, innovative solutions and challenges in the area of Sustainable Buildings and Environment. It is estimated that energy consumption by buildings accounts for more than 40% of the world's primary energy consumption and hence it's important to look into the sustainable factor of the buildings in order to reduce the carbon foot print and design efficient systems to minimize energy wastage."

The British University in Dubai invites papers for any of the themes such as Regulations, Policies and Finance; Building Materials; Urban level Sustainability; Reduce, Reuse and Recycle; Energy Conservation & Management; Active systems, Indoor Environmental Quality and Comfort. The deadline for the abstract submission is 13th April 2015 and deadline for submission of full paper is October 2015.

Prof Bassam Abu Hijleh, the Chair of the Conference, said, "It's important for Government, regulatory authorities and related industries to work together to promote and apply sustainable built environment practices. Sustainable Building Environment practices you are not only looking at saving energy, creating a healthy and productive environment but also avoiding further damaging to the environment which is manifested in different forms most notably Climate Change ." The conference will attract leading research from across the globe. The British University in Dubai Masters and Doctoral students will also be submitting papers to this conference. Prof Abu Hijleh who is also the Dean of Faculty of Engineering and IT and Atkins Chair at BUiD added, "With Dubai to host Expo 2020 substantial research is needed in different areas of the built environment such as new construction including refurbishing and retrofitting, as Dubai plans to increase the number of tourists and other businesses. Another crucial area for research is the use of Green Material for Construction; as per Frost and Sullivan the green materials market revenue is estimated to reach 23 billion dollars by 2016. A sustainable transport infrastructure is also crucial for this event. Energy consumption per capita in the GCC countries is one of the highest in the world and an international conferences such as SBE 16 Dubai will definitely provide a sound platform to analyse and adapt best practices in this area." SBE 16 Dubai is open for both Academics and Practitioners to submit their papers in these areas.

The event recognizes the need to "design, engineer and manage" thereby "integrating knowledge for a Greener Future". It will be hosted over three days at BUiD's campus and it will feature Key Note addresses by leading experts in these areas.

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