Dar: Sustainability Impact Award 2025 Entry

In November 2021, Dar signed the World Green Building Council’s Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment, committing to achieving net zero across our operations by 2030, and immediately set in place a decarbonisation roadmap to ensure that our company meets this ambitious objective. Dar’s net zero and decarbonisation roadmap aligns with that of our global collaborative of companies, Sidara, and includes milestones listed in Figure 1. 

• By October 2022, Dar had reported on its baseline year for environmental emissions. 

• In January 2022, Dar engaged as a regional partner with the World Green Building Council for the MENA region and Africa. 

• In 2023, Dar reported on its ESG metrics, as part of an ESG annual report produced collectively by all the Sidara companies. 

• By 2025, Dar aims to achieve a 10% reduction on our global operations for our Scope 1 and 2 emissions. 

• By 2030, Dar aims to achieve a 30% reduction on our global operations for our Scope 1 and 2 emissions, while purchasing offsets for the final annual greenhouse gas emissions to secure our net zero target.

Our comprehensive decarbonisation strategy and roadmap has four major action areas – energy, waste, travel, and purchasing – and covers more granular level objectives, designed to ensure that Dar becomes a more sustainable company at every level, including: 

• Achieving net zero Scope 1 Building Refrigerant Emissions by 2030

• Reducing water consumption by 10%, as compared to the baseline, by 2030 

• Reducing business travel by 20% (compared to the baseline) and achieving net zero Scope 1 emissions from fleet vehicles by 2030. 

By 2024, each of our design centres and area offices around the world had developed site-specific decarbonisation roadmaps. Identified strategies across all offices include:  

• Incorporating renewable energy: Installing photovoltaic PV systems, such as a 150 MWh/year rooftop PV system in Beirut, designing a 900 kWp ground mounted offsite solar energy farm under the Wheeling Option to offset consumption for Dar Amman, expanding the installed solar PV capacity in Dar Cairo, installing an 88kWp solar power plant in Dar Pune and adding similar installations in other offices around the world. Opportunities to capture wind energy through dedicated projects will also be explored. 

• Shifting to more sustainable mobility: Phasing out petrol cars, shifting fleet vehicles to hybrid or electric vehicles, and installing EV chargers. 

• Upgrading to more water-efficient and energy-efficient equipment and utilities: Upgrading HVAC systems (replacing split DX units with VRF systems, replacing conventional AC units with inverter type units, installing energy valves, variable speed chilled water pumps, installing programmable or smart thermostats, etc.); upgrading plumbing system (shifting to low-flow fixtures); shifting to more energy efficient appliances and lighting systems; and incorporating technologies such as smart plugs, occupancy sensors, etc. 

• Retrofitting buildings for sustainability: Retrofitting building envelopes (installing operable windows, solar tinted films, etc.) 

• Reducing waste: Promoting recycling (segregating waste and partnering with recycling facilities), converting to more sustainable sourcing, and implementing other waste reduction practices (such as phasing out plastic bottles and cutlery). 

• Prioritising awareness and advocacy: Launching sustainability awareness campaigns for all employees. 

One prominent success story was in Angola, where Dar commissioned a 100 kWac solar photovoltaic system at its staff compound in Luanda, a system that became operational as of August 1, 2024. The system features 12 parallel-connected strings, each with 16 high-efficiency 600 W panels, all integrated with a 100 kWac inverter, providing a maximum DC power of 115.2 kW. To enhance energy efficiency, a microgrid controller optimises performance by managing the system during generator operation, minimising the generator’s load and improving overall system efficiency. Real-time energy production is monitored through an application connected to the inverter. This enables the operations and maintenance (O&M) team to promptly address any issues and ensure optimal system performance. The staff compound has an average load of 43 kW and a daily electricity consumption of approximately 1 MWh. The new solar system is expected to produce around 184.3 MWh annually, which will result in an annual reduction of CO2 emissions by a minimum of 478 metric tons.

By beginning to implement all these sustainability initiatives, Dar was able to reduce its Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 14% compared to our baseline year of 2022, down from 14,436,125 to 12,436,125 in total CO2 emissions. 

Accelerating sustainability initiatives with digitalization 

Digitalization is a core accelerator of Dar’s sustainability and decarbonisation roadmap. For example, London’s 150 Holborn, the headquarters that hosts Dar’s offices as well as those of its global collaborative of companies Sidara, achieved the WiredScore SmartScore Platinum certification – recognising the building as one of the smartest buildings in the world. 150 Holborn, for example, deploys Schneider Electric’s power and energy management software PME system for energy performance and metering – integrating digital technology to minimise energy consumption and monitor energy efficiency and equipment performance, while still optimising our operational processes, thereby enhancing business resilience and continuity. For its integrated building management structure, 150 Holborn uses Schneider Electric’s Smart Building EcoStruxure Control System in combination with Dar’s own digital twin technology PARA and FDD software to help make our building more efficient, in a continuous and ongoing process aimed at incrementally improving the building. 150 Holborn depends on a network of over 650+ IAQ sensors feeding real time data on temperature, humidity, CO2, and other indoor air quality metrics. A Schneider Electric lighting system (comprising Dali and KNX) also helps optimize lighting control to enhance efficiency and reduce emissions. 

Dar’s PARA – an in-house developed platform with patent pending technology and the world’s first UL Smart Systems certification – is used to monitor and calculate the building’s performance, including its CO2 emissions. The platform offers real-time monitoring and control, facilitates predictive maintenance, and enhances sustainability and energy efficiency by creating a space to simulate and evaluate different scenarios to identify energy-saving measures, optimise resource allocation, and support better energy implementation. 150 Holborn also hosts a Planon IWMS solution with a Computer Aided Facility Management (CAFM) module that optimises building management. 

150 Holborn is on track to receive BREEAM Outstanding certification for New Construction – Retail Units (achieving 86.7% against the targeted 85% score) and BREEAM Outstanding for New Construction – Commercial Building (achieving 97.21% compared to a target of 85%). 150 Holborn also achieved a perfect 100 score on Wired Score as well as a Platinum Smart Score (with a score of 92 out of a possible 100). 150 Holborn had undertaken a BREEAM Lifecycle Assessment (LCA) to limit embodied carbon. Reducing fossil energy-based processes, 150 Holborn is also signed up to an energy tariff, purchasing 100% of its electricity from renewable sources. Moreover, none of the waste generated in the building is sent to landfills; instead, we leverage circularity in our operations by ensuring that waste is either directly recycled (mixed recyclables), composted (organic waste), or delivered into energy from waste streams (general waste).  

Similar digital solutions were introduced elsewhere in Dar’s offices. In Dar’s Smart Village headquarters in Dar, the PARA digital twin and building analytics platform identified facility management interventions that would boost operational efficiency and provided decision making support on energy management, sustainability, asset management, and user comfort. 

By uncovering areas for operational improvement and enabling data-driven optimizations, PARA OS significantly enhanced the building’s operational performance – reducing total energy consumption at the flagship headquarters by a staggering 28% and empowering the building to achieve LEED Gold certification for Operation and Maintenance, under the LEED v4.1 Operations and Maintenance: Existing Buildings rating system. PARA also helped stakeholders to clearly identify missed energy savings, enabling facility managers to take corrective actions, and to accurately measure actual energy savings, incentivizing operators to make more data-driven decisions for continuous improvement.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion 

As a signatory to the United Nations’ Women Empowerment Principles, Dar is committed to creating an environment where women can thrive as innovators, changemakers, and leaders in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. In an industry that has a global diversity ratio of just 11%, we are incredibly proud to have 26% women taking up technical positions across our design centres, and we are working actively to empower more and more women to participate and lead.   

Advocating for a more sustainable built environment globally 

Dar’s objective is to lead by example and use our expertise to inspire others in our region to take action towards decarbonising the built environment. We have the in-house expertise, capabilities, and accredited experts to deliver projects that meet the highest standards of sustainability and climate resilience, including up to net zero. Dar’s over 500 certified professionals have mastered a wide variety of sustainability certification systems and empower clients to meet and exceed the standards of international rating systems. Dar has successfully delivered over 100 LEED-certified projects, including up to LEED Platinum. 

Moreover, we have partnered with industry leaders like the World Green Building Council, PwC, Race to Resilience, and more to create thought leadership and advocate for sustainability in the built environment at successive COP summits.

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