RICS UAE Board Annual Magazine 2010-11

Construction Committee Update
Continued ...
Professional Groups
Environment – A sustainability sub-committee was formed, and is chaired by, Paul Vincent. The sub-committee
is looking at various initiatives, e.g.,
• RICS membership of the Emirates Green Building Council (EGBC) in Dubai or perhaps the signing of MoU
between the RICS and EGBC;
• Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) – A meeting is to be held shortly with the Managing Director of the
Sustainability Advisory Group (SAG) based in Dubai which advises companies on CSR and sustainable best
practices within office environments.
• Dubai Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI) – We attended a round-table discussion on how sustainability
is accounted for within firms’ balance sheets. DCCI aims to arrange similar round-table discussions for other
fields of industry that the RICS will be asked to attend.
• Sustainability was featured in two CPD / APC training events held during 2010. The first was an Introduction
for APC candidates held in May presented by Paul Vincent and the second was from a representative of DCCI
who discussed how the DCCI building became the first Existing Building in Dubai to be recognised for its
sustainability and achieving a LEED Certified status.
• Various contacts with regards to LEED AP training and BREEAM Gulf training have been established and
contact has also been made with the Urban Planning Council on Estidama training which is now available.
Project Management – Richard Vaughan is the Middle East rep. to the PM PG Board.
Building Surveying – A BS Board was formed and it will be run by Leesa Shevlane in Dubai and Marcus Lidster
in Abu Dhabi.
Other Initiatives
UAE Contractors Association (UCA) - Approaches were made to founding chairman of the UCA, Rushdi
Sharkartchi, in Abu Dhabi, but no further progress has been made in this direction.
Build Safe UAE (BSU) - Meetings were held with Elias McGrath of BSU re the possibility of signing an MoU
between BSU and the RICS was discussed to support/promote one another’s standards and ethics. RICS may
also become a supporting member of Build Safe.
FIDIC and the QS – A stakeholder has asked RICS to explore the possibility of lobbying FIDIC to create the QS
in FIDIC Contracts (as a separate entity from the Engineer) to undertake prescribed professional tasks directly
for the Employer rather than through the Engineer. A paper was prepared and was submitted to the Chair of
the Global QS/Const. PG Board and it was also discussed at a meeting of the RICS Contracts Group in HQ in
March 2010. This initiative has not been taken to date.
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
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