Mapua Institute of Technology

Muralla, Intramuros, Manila

School of AR-ID-BE Graduate Studies

"ASSIGNMENT 1 – DIAMOND DEVELOPERS"

ARSA223- Sustainable Project Design

Submitted to:

Arch. Mitchelle Pernia

Submitted by:

Jan Andrew C. Macaso

1.0 Synopsis

In late 2014, Diamond Developers was building Dubai’s first large

sustainable city, which was a mixed-use community designed to set new

standards in environmental sustainability in the Middle East and beyond.

As the project neared completion, the company’s co-founders needed to

decide how to measure the developments sustainability performance.

Existing sustainability rating schemes had faced heavy criticism and

were not easily applicable in Dubai’s desert climate. The co-founders

therefore needed to determine whether the company should adapt one

of the existing measurement systems or design its own sustainability

performance measures. Regardless of the measurement system the

company chose, the co-founders needed to decide how to define,

measure, and manage sustainability as part of a unique real estate

development project.

2.0 Why are the internationally recognized rating systems may be

limiting in the case of the Sustainable City?

The existing sustainability rating schemes for real estate has its

strenghts and weaknesses. Coordinating with LEED representatives may

push Diamond Developers towards world recognition. But there is a

 slight drawback in the existing rating system, as stated by Muhammad

Ghunaim in the report of Tim Rogmans specified that most of the

sustainability rating schemes in real estate sector are prescriptive in

behavior, rather than focusing on sustainable outcomes (Rogmans,

2016).

3.0 How should diamond developer proceed with the development

of sustainability indicators? Should it use or adapt an existing

system or develop its own? What are the potential benefits and

risks of either approach? How might the risks be mitigated?

An indicator is something that helps you understand where you are,

which way you are going and how far you are from where you want to

be (Hart, 2018). Diamond developers should focus on three main

aspects in sustainable design as an indicator. Social, Economy and

Environment. A specific indicator must have a massive impact on the

community, therefore, the basic utility systems like power and water

services can be a good example of an indicator (Bay & Ong, 2016).

Furthermore, having a stable resource will have a positive impact on the

community’s economy. Consequently, it will also affect the population

and therefore will result to a healthy economy and a chain reaction will

go on and on to various parts of the community affecting greatly on its

social, economic, and environmental aspect. The advantages of

indicators help monitor a certain characteristic so that negative trends

are caught and dealt with before they become a problem. For

communities with economic, social, or environmental problems,

indicators can point the way to a better future. For all communities,

indicators can generate discussion among people with different

backgrounds and viewpoints, and, in the process, help create a shared

vision of what the community should be (Hart, 2018).

If Diamond Developers adapt the existing output measurement system

of LEED and BREEAM as their key to sustainable measurement outcome

there is a chance of achieving minimal and unreliable results because

the system is not entirely made for a specific climate nor does targets

the Social, and Cultural aspect of the community. In other words, the

current systems are generic that are made for global use only. And if

they develop their own, the positive side is that they will have a

personalized approach in measuring sustainability targeting both the

climate and socio-cultural part of the region but maybe lack other

important elements that the LEED or BREEAM’s technical know-hows

that they have developed through the years of research and their

system are well-established system up this date. In my opinion,

Diamond Developers should do both, they should follow LEED or

BREEAM’s prescriptions that may benefit Dubai’s community as a whole

and disregard those who has least productive measuring system in

 terms of measuring sustainability output in socio-cultural, economy and

climate; and develop their own specialize sustainable scheme that

meets the company’s needs.

The benefits of creating their own sustainable system is that they have

their own unique scheme that will provide them decent and real results

and outcomes that came from their community and environment. The

risk is if the company is trying to develop new sustainable measurement

system that may take years to be fully developed. Also, the investors,

they may have to think twice before investing on a developing

technology or system. This might damage them financially. To mitigate

this problem, they must coordinate with reliable professionals with

specialization work hand in hand with other organization with the same

cause focusing only in a small community that serves as an research

facility for their development.

4.0 What measures (indicators) would you suggest to assess how

the Sustainable City is in terms of environmental, economic, and

social dimensions?

There are things to consider in deciding what would be the best indicator

in a certain region for community sustainable design. Particularly the

indicators must focus on three major aspects: Socio-culture, Climate,

and Economic aspect. We need to identify each in a specific way in order

to have good results (Bay & Ong, 2016). For instance, does the indicator

address the carrying capacity of the natural resources renewable and

nonrenewable, local and nonlocal that the community relies on? This

question addresses the carrying capacity of all the natural resources on

which the community depends. The types of natural resources that a

community measures will depend upon the community. A community in

the Pacific Northwest may rely on its forests for raw material and for

jobs. An indicator that measures the rate of timber harvest relative to

the renewable harvest rate would get one point for this question.

Similarly, a community in the southwestern U.S. may rely on water that

is piped hundreds of miles. Although outside the local area, that water

is an important part of the community's natural resource base. An

indicator that shows whether the water is being used sustainably would

get one point for this question. An industrial community may rely on

metals that come from mines in another country. If the material from

the mines is vital to the community's economy, that resource is part of

the natural resources on which the community depends. An indicator of

cyclical use of this non-renewable resource would get one point for this

question (Hart, 2018). This is one example of wide array of questions

can be formulated to identify what type of indicator is best suited in a

certain region. Focusing on these three major aspects as I mentioned

 above will keep us on guided weather there is a major flaw in our

designs.

5.0 Do you think our own BERDE rating system has localized

sustainability measures effectively?

The Philippine Green Building Council or also known as BERDE is our

localized version of LEED and BREEAM. Though it is still young compared

to other organizations, BERDE has proven itself worthy to be one of the

most reliable organizations. The PHILGBC is also a member of the World

Green Building Council – Asia Pacific Network, the International

Initiative for a Sustainable Built Environment (iiSBE), and a global

partner of the GLOBE Alliance. The Council’s opinions are valued in the

areas of policy development, business development, and environmental

expertise. In my observation, majority of its main points adopted on the

existing system like LEED, and still the rating schemes are prescriptive

in behavior, rather than focusing on sustainable outcomes. Nonetheless,

the current system of BERDE is effective and can be treated as equal to

its counter parts (PHILGBC, 2018). But in my opinion, the current

organization still lacks the reliable system that measures sustainable

outcome but hopefully in the future we will be able to develop a complex

system that will give us reliable results.

6.0 Conclusion

The vision of Diamond Developers, which is to build a sustainable city

and to formulate a tool to measure the sustainable output, poses an

intimidating challenge that the company is willing to risk. Indeed,

measuring the quality of life is quite difficult because it does not have a

fixed numerical value. There are a lot of factors to consider before

building a sustainable city. Each aspect of a community, like socio-

cultural, climate and economy are too complex to give a definite

measurement. There is no way in a simple sense that we are able to

measure it. That is why sustainability indicators have an important role

in this system. By carefully choosing the proper indicator specifically for

a certain community, it might give us valuable information and we can

identify the problem as early as possible. Thus, with this outputs, results

and data we can formulate better design solutions to further improve

our way of life, our community’s health, and our environment as a

whole.

7.0 Bibliography
Bay, J.-H., & Ong, B. (2016). Tropical Sustainable Architecture Social and
Environmental Dimensions. Burlington: Elsevier.

Hart, M. (2018, 02 15). What is an indicator of sustainability? Retrieved from

Sustainable Measures: http://www.sustainablemeasures.com/node/89

PHILGBC. (2018, 2 16). Discovering Green Buildings in Metro Manila.

Retrieved from Philippine Green Building Council:
http://philgbc.org/category/inthenews/berde/
Rogmans, T. (2016). Diamond Developers: Measuring Sustainability.
London: Ivey Management Services, a division of Richard Ivey School
of Business.

U.S. Green Building Council. (2018). LEED v4 for Building Design and
Construction. USGBC.