Volume 3 Issue 1.indd - Parsons Brinckerhoff

Masdar: Managing Sustainability
By Meg Cederoth
PB is providing project management services for the
design and construction of the Masdar Institute of Science
and Technology and Ancillary Buildings. Masdar’s notable
characteristic is that it is planned and touted to be the
world’s first carbon-neutral, zero-waste city, free of cars. The
exceptional challenge is achieving this in the car-oriented,
consumption-profligate, sun-scrubbed environment of
Abu Dhabi. Achieving these aggressive ambitions requires
thoughtful, and very different design for this area, radical
changes in construction practices, and altering the habits
and assumptions about living the good life in the desert.
Origins
In 2006, the World Wildlife Federation analyzed the
consumption patterns of every country in the world,
and determined an ecological footprint, per capita, for
each nation. The UAE ranked the worst, with the highest
ecological footprint per capita in the world, just edging out
the US. This ranking is due to carbon emissions associated
with the primary energy used for lighting and cooling
the Emirates, and potable water production. More than
80 percent of the potable water in the UAE is extracted
from the Gulf and goes through an energy-intensive
desalination process.
Recognizing that fossil fuel extraction will only carry the
fortune of the nation so far, and that investment in new
technology would be essential, the Abu Dhabi government
created Masdar for investment in renewable technology.
This $22 billion fund was spread between investment in
generation and research, and funding Masdar city. The
city is intended to be a demonstration of how to design
and build a carbon-neutral city, a city that minimizes its
environmental impact in construction and operation,
where people can still enjoy a high quality of life.
What is Sustainability?
Everyone has been saying it, but what is it? Climate change
is showing us that the environment can and will alter in
response to the system imbalance created by excessive
greenhouse gases. Adapting to this changed environment,
and trying to stem the tide of emissions that warm the
globe are reasons for adopting a sustainability approach.
Sustainability, as a framework, can be mistaken for being
all things to all people. There is a subtlety to implementing
sustainability in that it must respond to specific
circumstances. A sustainable infrastructure project in
Detroit looks very different from one in Scottsdale because
there are different underlying circumstances, physically
and socially. Similarly, a sustainable city in Abu Dhabi
faces very different challenges to deliver triple bottom
line performance than one in Munich. The climate is very
different, the materials are very different.
Sustainability anywhere, though, balances decisions
according to a triple bottom line of the society, the
economy, and the environment. Usually the underlying
objectives of a given sustainability project are the same:
• Minimize the environmental impact, including
the non-renewable fossil fuel energy
consumption and carbon footprint, over the
project life cycle from design, materials selection,
transport and manufacturing of materials and
equipment, construction, facilities operation and
maintenance, through final disposition at the end
of project service life.
• Provide for excellent conditions for people
• Keep within a life-cycle budget
Masdar also signed on to the ten principles of One Planet
Living, a concept developed and promoted by UK-based
BioRegional.
As an umbrella concept, it covers how PB delivers work.
Decision-making is retooled to consider the triple bottom
line, not just money. Design solutions favor minimizing
the extraction and reliance on scarce resources and
denuding the environment. Although it sounds simple,
a sustainability approach is fundamentally different from
other design solutions.
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