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EcoSmart Seminars in Abu Dhabi: April 21-22, 2008

EcoSmart offered a series of seminars on Sustainable Building and Concrete at the Building Futures Gulf conference in Abu Dhabi on April 21 & 22.

The seminars took place in the Structure & Envelope Forum, located in the Structure Gulf Exhibition Hall 7.

Building materials are becoming an increasing concern for sustainability in the UAE’s unprecedented construction boom. Concrete is second only to water as the most consumed substance on earth and accounts for over 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. But does this mean we must stop using concrete in construction? Attendees learned how concrete and other building materials and approaches can be turned around to work toward sustainability while increasing the performance and maintaining the cost of construction projects.

Expert speakers from the UAE and Canada discussed issues related to concrete, other construction materials and green building. Presentations covered a variety of perspectives with time provided for speakers to address questions from attendees.

EcoSmart’s seminar speakers included:

• James Aldred, GHD Global, Manager of the Independent Verification and Testing for the Burj Dubai Tower
• Khaled Awad, Director, Property Development, Masdar
• Denis Beaupré, Technical Manager for Unibeton Ready Mix, Abu Dhabi and formerly professor of Civil Engineering at Laval University, Quebec, Canada
• Michel de Spot, President of EcoSmart Foundation Inc., and a LEED Accredited Professional, Vancouver, Canada
• Jeff Hood, VP Business Development, Icynene
• Ken Klassen, MBA, CMHC International Training Team

Speaker presentations will be added in the near future to our Knowledge Base.

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