Portrait of a nation: The man who turned Dubai Chamber of Commerce green

Jagath Gunawardena leads projects that aim to make the Chamber building more energy efficient, a campaign that has resulted in Dh7.7 million in energy savings and Dh1.5 million saved on water between 1998 and last year.

Jagath Gunawardena is the senior manager of projects and building development at the Dubai Chamber of Commerce. With his fine tuning, the building is now one of the greenest in the region. Lee HoaglaShow more

dubai // “You must think I am mad,” says Jagath Gunawardena as he looks away from a slide with calculations about the number of people that can fit in the lift of his office building.

Some people may indeed once have thought so, but few now doubt the benefits of Mr Gunawardena’s off-the-cuff ideas.

His calculations – concluding that, despite the manufacturers’ advice, 17 people could not fit comfortably inside – led to a fine-tuning of the lifts system that reduced the amount of energy it used by 20 per cent.

It was one example of efficiency measures introduced in the main building of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce in Deira, with the help of Mr Gunawardena, the chamber’s senior manager for projects and building development.

With cumulative savings of Dh7.7 million on energy and Dh1.5 million on water between 1998 and last year, the building is widely regarded as one of the first examples of sustainability in Dubai.

It is also a testament to how big savings and environmental benefits can accrue if a building’s energy and water consumption is monitored and managed effectively.

“To make a building green, it does not cost you anything, it is a matter of managing it,” says the Sri Lankan engineer who arrived in Dubai in 1983 at the age of 28.

To illustrate his point, he shows a night-time photo of the skyline along Dubai Creek.

“Do you see anything strange?” he asks, motioning to the photo that shows the Chamber of Commerce plunged in darkness in contrast to its brightly-lit neighbours.

“This is the easiest sustainability, it does not cost you anything,” he says, explaining that air-conditioning is also switched off at 10pm after the last occupants leave the building.

Mr Gunawardena has been keeping track of energy and water bills since 1995 when the building was first occupied. One priority area was air-conditioning, which accounts for most of the energy used in any building in the region. Air is cooled to 24°C. On days when the outside temperature is 18°C and below, fresh air from outside is brought inside the building without additional cooling.

While cooling stops at night, some critical areas such as server rooms require a constant temperature. These areas are cooled by a separate, much smaller air-conditioning system. Mr Gunawardena is also using a small fountain outside the building as a cooling tower for the chillers of the smaller system.

He has also employed an interesting solution to provide the water for the fountain. In 2004, a Dh5,000 system was installed to collect the condensation from the large air-conditioning system. The solution paid for itself in two months.

Indeed, many of the measures in the building required no additional investments outside Mr Gunawardena’s annual budget to run and maintain it. He used financial savings achieved through efficiency to finance the improvements.

Overall, from 1998 to 2008, the measures reduced the building's electricity consumption by 47 per cent and water consumption by 77 per cent. Thank to these achievements, in 2009 the building received a certification under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, the international benchmark scheme for green buildings.

Mr Gunawardena says the success of the earlier measures gave him leverage to press for further changes. Such was the effect that when he presented to management the building’s water bill – less than Dh3,000 – he was asked whether one zero had been accidentally missed. Until 2008, water bills averaged Dh19,000.

In August last year, the building became the only one in the region to receive LEED platinum status.

Mr Gunawardena’s explanation of his passion for the energy and water savings also comes in figures. In April this year, for the first time in millennia, levels of heat-warming carbon dioxide were over 400 parts per million over a full month.

“During my eight-grade science class, I still remember, it was 330ppm,” he said, and the trend must stop if catastrophic changes to the climate are to be averted. “After 450ppm to 500ppm, we are doomed, we have no reverse,” he said.