MENA has a USD 2 tn chance to become a global leader in sustainable builtenvironments: Gulf Cooperation Council countries and Egypt are set to invest a combined USD 2 tn in construction projects by 2035. Paired with the region’s ambitious commitment to slash emissions and make the shift to renewables, this massive construction boom offers a unique chance for the region to become a pioneer in sustainable built environments, a report (pdf) by PwC’s strategy consulting unit Strategy& and our friends at Dar Al-Handasah (Dar) argues.

There are around 30 mega built environment projects in the pipeline across the region,including Saudi Arabia’s net–zero city Neom, Qatar’s planned Lusail entertainment city, and the DP World/Emaar Mina Rashid Redevelopment project in the UAE.

To put things into perspective: The planned investments represent more than 10% of theregion’s annual GDP and could create nearly 4.3 mn jobs a year, according to the report.

First things first, what is a built environment? It is “the human-made surroundings thatprovide the setting for human activity, including buildings, neighborhoods, and cities, and their supporting infrastructure systems such as water supply and energy networks,” the report explains.

Built environments use up a chunk of our resources, accounting for 37% of energyconsumption globally, 40% of material use, and 39% of total carbon emissions.

Which leaves plenty of room for improvement on the green front: The report identifies fourcategories where carbon reduction could be targeted — be it embodied or operational carbon — in the built environment sphere including materials and construction, systems, building energy management and efficiency, and pathways and mobility.

Embodied vs operational emissions: Embodied carbon refers to all emissions emitted duringthe building process — including the extraction, production, and transportation of building materials and the emissions from machinery. “The embodied carbon in buildings alone accounts for as much as 39% of energy-related carbon emissions globally,” the report says. Meanwhile, operational emissions refer to emissions that have to do with the energy used to operate the building — like power, heating, and elevators.

Using alternative materials and construction could help reduce embodied emissions: The report notes the region could slash between 5-15% of built environments’ life-cycle emissions by changing up the materials used and construction processes — construction materials make up 65-85% of a building’s life-cycle embodied emissions.

The alternatives: The report lists a number of innovative ways to cut down on emissionsreleased from materials and construction.

#1- Cradle-to-cradle design: A process that incorporates recycled plastic with construction materials instead of carbon-intensive steel. “This can help reduce the number of resources needed to produce concrete, and the end result is five times as strong as steel relative to its weight,” the report reads.

#2- Modular construction: The approach, also known as off-site construction andprefabrication, refers to buildings being designed and engineered off-site and then assembled on-site, helping reduce high levels of waste and inefficiency. If the concept becomes more widely implemented, it could cut down embodied emissions by around 20% and costs by 30%.

#3- More reliance on natural raw materials: The technique known as rammed earth usesnatural raw materials — like earth, chalk, lime, and gravel — for the construction of foundations, floors, and walls. “These innovations hold the potential to reduce embodied carbon emissions by 30-50%, with strong localization potential across the region,” the report says.

#4- Green steel, WHP cement: The report names the transition to greener fuels and increasedenergy-efficient production as “two key shifts” that need to take place across the GCC, both of which can be achieved through a shift towards green steel and waste heat to power–based (WHP) cement. The use of green steel — steel produced through electrolysis using renewables — can reduce emissions by up to 95%, while the use of WHP — systems that operate through “capturing waste heat generated during production processes and converting it to usable power” — can reduce emissions by 90%.

#5- Self-cleaning concrete uses sunlight to clean itself, increasing its lifespan and improvingthe air quality around it. Currently it is significantly more expensive than traditional concrete but the report points to the possibility of localization to help make it more “commercially viable in the future.”

What about operational emissions? “Innovations in operational carbon can be combined toincrease the use of renewable energy, encourage dynamic energy management with better power storage, and institute a circular water system,” the report reads. Operational emissions can be reduced through:

#1- Green hydrogen production can help reduce the emissions emitted from powergenerations, as it provides renewable energy to power buildings.

The Egypt angle: Egypt aims to provide 5-8% of the world’s hydrogen and reduce annualcarbon emissions by 40 mn tons by 2040, creating some 100k jobs and adding USD 10-18 bn to GDP in the process. The government has also signed MoUs with 23 developers and framework agreements with nine international power companies to develop green hydrogen projects.

#2- Trigeneration is the process of producing cooling, heat, and power from a single input. Theprocess helps reduce energy costs by 30-40%, cut down on fuel consumption, and cut down on energy losses. It can cut down on emissions by up to 30%.

Energy management and efficiency is crucial too: Some 15-25% of built environments’ emissions could be reduced by taking steps towards energy management and efficiency, like implementing carbon-sinking dynamic façade designs and using AI to predict and optimize consumer behavior patterns based on the climate.

No green cities without green mobility: The report points to the need to shift towards“sustainably powered charging infrastructure,” which can cut emissions by 86%. It also mentions incorporating energy-harvesting roads will result in a substantial drop in greenhouse gas output.

Other recommendations: The region must expand efforts to treat wastewater on site ofgeneration, which can easily push down carbon output by some 90% from current rates and decrease energy consumption from pumping water to treatment facilities, the report concludes.

Your top green economy stories for the week:

• GEM goes green: The Grand Egyptian Museum received an EDGE Certification for sustainable and green buildings, becoming the first green-certified museum in the Middle East and Africa. (Statement)
• The House approvedan EUR 500 mn grant from the European Investment Bank to support the environment ministry’s Sustainable Green Industry project.
• Gov’t to hand over land for Sohag wind farm within weeks: The government will deliver a plot of land for the planned 10-GW wind farm in Sohag to the consortium in charge of developing the project in March.