Business & Money | Wednesday 25 February, 2015 12:57 am |

The Big 5 Saudi – International Building and Construction Show has announced the first ladies only LEED workshop during this year’s event. The full day workshop, LEED for ladies v4 objectives and strategies, will take place on Wednesday 11th March from 9:00am until 6:15pm at the Holiday Inn Jeddah Gateway.

The innovative workshop will help those attending understand the structure of the LEED rating system and minimum program requirements, while discussing the overall LEED certification process. During the course of the day, participants will learn about the associated concepts of each LEED credit category and gain the ability to recognise successful LEED strategies and measurements for achieving credit category goals. The instructor of the workshop, Mario Seneviratne, will engage participants in real life LEED project examples, providing them practical insights.

Saudi Arabia has made great progress in sustainability over the last decade with the formation of the Saudi Green Building Council in 2009. As the country continues its quest to become a more sustainable nation, the demand for sustainable developments has dramatically increased, in turn leading to greater need for education and training in the subject. Green building projects accounted for more than 20 million square meters at the end of 2014 and this figure is expected to double in 2015.

dmg events Event director Nathan Waugh, said: “LEED is a vital part of construction today not just globally but locally. There are a large number of projects and buildings that are certified or working towards certification here in the Kingdom. As Saudi moves towards becoming a sustainable nation, we are proud to be able to use our event platform to help make sustainability education more widely available. We regularly receive a great deal of interest from ladies looking to gain qualifications on LEED ratings, but until now we have not been able to act on that interest,” he added.

Mario Seneviratne, Director of Green Technologies FZCO said: “Now that the construction industry in Saudi Arabia is implementing more sustainable buildings, the workshop offers professionals a better chance to develop their skills and implement them on projects they are working on. This is the first year we have offered this workshop to ladies only and we are delighted to tailor these workshops for the Saudi market. The knowledge that the workshop offers will create a demand for participating professionals, with both professional certification and experience.”

LEED certification is a mark of excellence and achievement in green building that has become the most widely used green building rating system in the world. LEED certification provides independent authentication of a structure or area’s green features, allowing for the design, construction, operations and maintenance of resource-efficient, high-performing, healthy, cost-effective buildings.

The Big 5 Saudi 2015 is supported by Gold Sponsor, Rajhi Steel, the leading manufacturers of iron and steel in Middle East and North Africa’s.