# Sustainability Roles in Dubai



## gemt2015 (Jul 9, 2015)

Hello,

I am a recent graduate in the UK with 2 years experience in the environmental consulting industry. I am enquiring if anyone knows the current career availability in environmental and sustainable work in Dubai at the moment? I am aware of MASDAR City and the work going on there. 

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

George


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## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

Hi 
Welcome to the forum.
The most popular sustainability work in Dubai and the whole GCC revolves around sustainable building consultancy.
This means at both the design and construction stages - ensuring that the buildings comply with the relevant national or international standards.
These vary by Emirate in UAE and also by country in GCC.
Abu Dhabi has its own building standard called Estidama (Arabic word for sustainability) this is administered by UPC and consultants have to pass an exam to become PQPs (pearl qualified professionals).
Dubai mainly uses the American standard - LEED but also has its own standards known as EHS and the Dubai Municipality Green building standard.
Qatar has its own standard called GSAS but also uses LEED for Qatar Foundation projects.
Oman, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Egypt all use LEED.
The British green building standard - BREEAM is not used at all in this region.
If you want sustainability work in this region - you really need to pass the LEED or Estidama exams to give you the best chance of working in this field.
Cheers
Steve


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## BedouGirl (Sep 15, 2011)

Loads!!!! It's big here and getting bigger every day. It's not difficult to do some on-line research. You do know MASDAR is not in Dubai don't you?


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## gemt2015 (Jul 9, 2015)

Hi Steve,

Thanks a lot for that. I am aware of the sustainable building standards but have not yet been able to get qualified (Current work don't have the work available to justify the training) but I have done a lot of reading up on it. Maybe it would be worth funding myself to get the qualifications?

Would you recommend joining some Dubai recruitment agencies and going from there?

Hi Bedougirl, 

Yes I am aware MASDAR is not in Dubai, but on my trips to the UAE the commute would not be too bad from Dubai to Abu Dhabi. It's great to know the industry is growing out there, it definitely fills me with optimism that I can get an opportunity. Especially as the expo in 2020 is happening it seems it could be a great time to move out there.

Thank you for your responses,

George


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## LesFroggitts (Dec 30, 2013)

gemt2015 said:


> Yes I am aware MASDAR is not in Dubai, but on my trips to the UAE the commute would not be too bad from Dubai to Abu Dhabi.


Let's see if you still feel the same after doing this run daily for say a month or so. I need to do the run every fortnight or so and it's certainly not a pleasure and that's in a car that has a bit of size and strength.

Am I right in saying that as an 'environmentalist' you'd probably also go with an environmentally conscientious choice of car - personally I'd say that's not a sound choice for a daily run from Dubai to Abu Dhabi. There's plenty of choice of smaller cars here but having a bit of heft around you is not a bad thing around here.


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## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

gemt2015 said:


> Hi Steve,
> 
> Thanks a lot for that. I am aware of the sustainable building standards but have not yet been able to get qualified (Current work don't have the work available to justify the training) but I have done a lot of reading up on it. Maybe it would be worth funding myself to get the qualifications?
> 
> ...


Hi George
Yes - you really need to get qualified yourself - neither the LEED nor the Estidama exams are that expensive.
The Estidama one is much more straightforward and you can download the standards from the UPC website.
The LEED exam is now much harder than it used to be - as they recently changed the standard to V4 - and this is more complex than the V3 that it replaces.
Once you have one standard under your belt - you can get work and pass the other exams as you go along.
Most of the sustainability engineers in the UAE are actually from India - so salaries may not be as high as you imagine or would like to earn here.
A newly qualified PQP might earn around 10000 AED per month and a sustainability manager 15000 to 25000 AED per month.
I don't know of any specific recruitment agencies in Dubai that cover this sector (other than maybe Allen and York) but you can google LEED or Estidama consultants in Dubai or Abu Dhabi and get details of the companies - then approach them direct.
Some post job vacancies on Dubizzle - so also worth looking there.
Cheers
Steve


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## BedouGirl (Sep 15, 2011)

Most of the architectural and construction companies are employing sustainability specialists now. Many of those have their own in-house recruitment teams. Just google them, get on their websites and even if you don't see a suitable opening, send your CV in. And, really, if you take a job in Abu Dhabi, live there. The journey is a nightmare, not to mention your carbon footprint of course . As Steve says, get LEED under your belt before you start looking.


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## gemt2015 (Jul 9, 2015)

Hi Steve and Bedougirl,

Thanks a lot for the info, it is exactly what I was hoping for with my original post. Il look into LEED as soon as possible, it's a route I had wanted to go down anyway so it makes sense to accomplish it sooner rather than later. 

In regards to the commute, I only had hopes for it as my brother lives in Dubai and worked in Abu Dhabi for 2 years, but perhaps he is made of sterner stuff. 

You may be wondering why I am on the forums if my sibling lives in the Dubai, but I am trying to find out as much information as possible before approaching him with some advice. 

Thanks again all,

George


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## LesFroggitts (Dec 30, 2013)

gemt2015 said:


> In regards to the commute, I only had hopes for it as my brother lives in Dubai and worked in Abu Dhabi for 2 years, but perhaps he is made of sterner stuff.
> 
> You may be wondering why I am on the forums if my sibling lives in the Dubai, but I am trying to find out as much information as possible before approaching him with some advice.


You're doing the right thing by finding out as much through as many sources as possible - helps to avoid rose tinted glasses.

For those that haven't experienced Middle East driving (and the UAE is NOT the worst) it will often come as quite a shock to those not used to fairly aggressive, fast driving styles. Somewhere that indicators are often seen as optional and not always indicating the direction the driver intends, undertaking is the norm, as is flashing headlights to get you out of their way (flashing lights here is NOT indicating that you are helping someone else - rather in means I'M COMING THROUGH).


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## crt454 (Sep 3, 2012)

Are you in the urban planning type of field work?


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## iggles (Jan 4, 2015)

ugh sustainability is one the worst thing that's come in to construction. Nearly as obtrusive as Health and Safety!


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## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

iggles said:


> ugh sustainability is one the worst thing that's come in to construction. Nearly as obtrusive as Health and Safety!


Maybe - if you try to add "sustainability" to an old design of building.
But it is excellent if fully considered at the design stage.
Building is less expensive to build and cheaper running costs for the owner or tenants.
Cheers
Steve


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## iggles (Jan 4, 2015)

Stevesolar said:


> Maybe - if you try to add "sustainability" to an old design of building.
> But it is excellent if fully considered at the design stage.
> Building is less expensive to build and cheaper running costs for the owner or tenants.
> Cheers
> Steve


As a contractor that doesn't matter to me. Once I've built the thing, i pack my stuff and go home. 

(and pray there are no defects!!)

Edit

On a project for Seven Trent, they added a GBP 1 million variation for a Biomas boiler to the building, great idea. The pellets had to be shipped from USA. Not a Great Idea.


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## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

iggles said:


> On a project for Seven Trent, they added a GBP 1 million variation for a Biomas boiler to the building, great idea. The pellets had to be shipped from USA. Not a Great Idea.


Hi,
That is really odd - as one of the largest manufacturers of biomass pellets is based in Northern Ireland!
No logical reason to ship compressed sawdust from USA to the UK.
Cheers
Steve


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## iggles (Jan 4, 2015)

Stevesolar said:


> Hi,
> That is really odd - as one of the largest manufacturers of biomass pellets is based in Northern Ireland!
> No logical reason to ship compressed sawdust from USA to the UK.
> Cheers
> Steve


I've got more!!! 

I worked on a project in Finland for a UK Company, we had to use timber that is stamped to meet UK laws (literally no idea what the stamp was or the laws)

So no joke, the timber/ply was taken from Finland, shipped to UK, to get a stamp, then shipped back to us in Finland.


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## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

iggles said:


> I've got more!!!
> 
> I worked on a project in Finland for a UK Company, we had to use timber that is stamped to meet UK laws (literally no idea what the stamp was or the laws)
> 
> So no joke, the timber/ply was taken from Finland, shipped to UK, to get a stamp, then shipped back to us in Finland.


Hi,
That would probably be an FSC stamp.
Cheers
Steve


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## LesFroggitts (Dec 30, 2013)

Stevesolar said:


> Hi,
> That is really odd - as one of the largest manufacturers of biomass pellets is based in Northern Ireland!
> No logical reason to ship compressed sawdust from USA to the UK.
> Cheers
> Steve


Aren't Eddie Stobart one of the larger Biomass transporters - even going so far as to have really specialised self-discharging trailer (by way of walking floors)


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## Windsweptdragon (Aug 12, 2012)

WSP are currently trying to recruit a Graduate Sustainability Consultant. If you're not on LinkedIn to search for the role (you should be) drop me a PM and I can give you their HR managers e-mail. 

I would guess this would mean you would not need the LEED accreditation in place as they should give you training for the exam.


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## gemt2015 (Jul 9, 2015)

I'm not in the urban planning area unfortunately. In my two years since I graduated, I have worked on a wide variety of environmental projects from contamination testing to asset management of flood structures and coastal erosion investigations. I'm hoping this can give an employer the opportunity to tailor me to their field of work. 

George


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## BedouGirl (Sep 15, 2011)

gemt2015 said:


> I'm not in the urban planning area unfortunately. In my two years since I graduated, I have worked on a wide variety of environmental projects from contamination testing to asset management of flood structures and coastal erosion investigations. I'm hoping this can give an employer the opportunity to tailor me to their field of work. George


These fields are definitely areas of expertise that are required in this part of the world.


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## Barry1977 (Mar 2, 2015)

iggles said:


> On a project for Seven Trent, they added a GBP 1 million variation for a Biomas boiler to the building, great idea. The pellets had to be shipped from USA. Not a Great Idea.


 I'm sure its a small amount compared to the million odd tons of pellets that Drax is said to import from the US. 


Does anyone know if its difficult to qualify for Estidama?


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## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

Barry1977 said:


> I'm sure its a small amount compared to the million odd tons of pellets that Drax is said to import from the US.
> 
> 
> Does anyone know if its difficult to qualify for Estidama?


Hi,
The Estidama exam is very straightforward to pass - providing you have learnt the published rules and procedures.
Cheers
Steve


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## Barry1977 (Mar 2, 2015)

Hi Gemt2015 have you had any success in your job search? I have recently arrived in Abu Dhabi and would like to get an idea of the current jobs market for environmental and similar positions


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## gemt2015 (Jul 9, 2015)

Hi Barry,

I have not tried yet. I am currently working towards the LEED green associate exam (As recommended by others) hoping it will give me a better chance of succeeding in landing a career when I do try. I will post here when I have started applying. Good luck!


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