BUILD_ME project regional workshop held from 31 May to 1 June in Cairo, Egypt.

On 31 May, the BUILD_ME team brought over 70 stakeholders from Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and the Arab countries together in a regional workshop held from 31 May to 1 June in Cairo. The workshop concluded the Phase II of the BUILD_ME project. In this workshop, the team presented the current status of the project as well as the tools and resources developed over the course of project.
The workshop started with keynotes from Prof. Dr. Khalid El Zahaby (Chairman of HBRC), Dr. Mohammed Salheen (IDG, Chairperson), Mr. Philippe Maupai (Head of Science Department, German Embassy Cairo), Mr. Carsten Petersdorff (Project Director, Guidehouse), Dr. Jauad El Kharraz (Executive Director, RCREEE) and Dr. Jamila Matar (Director, Energy Department, League of Arab States League of Arab States).
The keynotes were followed by an introduction of the project and the workshop agenda by Dr. Mohamed Salheen. In a session moderated by Dr. Norhan El Dallal (IDG), Dr. Mohammed Salheen, Muhieddin Tawalbeh (Royal Scientific Society, Jordan) and Dr. Sorina Mortada, (Lebanese Center for Energy Conservation LCEC, Lebanon) have discussed the BUILD_ME countries insights focusing on the key challenges and recommendations to accelerate the energy efficiency in the building sector.
Carsten Petersdorff (BUILD_ME project director, Guidehouse) presented the key findings of the second phase of the project in a presentation titled "How to develop a baseline to assess climate friendly buildings". This was followed by a case study of the implementation of energy efficiency and renewable energy measures in KONN homes in Jordan which was presented by Basel Uraiqat (CEO & Co-Founder of Konn Technologies).
In a high-level panel discussion, Prof. Dr. Ashraf Kamal (HBRC, Egypt), Pierre El Khoury (Director of LCEC, Lebanon), Dr. Jamal Qtaishat (Director of Jordan National Building Council) and Dr. Maged Mahmoud (RCREEE) have discussed the roadmap towards accelerating the construction of climate friendly buildings in MENA Region providing clear guidance on the next steps required to address the multifaceted challenges of the construction market, access to sustainable finance and development of policy instruments of energy efficiency in the building sector.
After that, Riadh Bhar (BUILD_ME project Manager, Guidehouse) has presented the concepts, working packages and the strategic goals of the potential BUILD_ME next phase. The third phase should focus on the development of national classification schemes that to be adopted by national authorities and to be accepted by financial institutions to facilitate finance for buildings’ energy efficiency projects. The first day of the workshop was then concluded with an open discussion around the topics of financing instruments, national rating and classification schemes of buildings, policy instruments and capacity building.
The second day of the workshop started with a session under the title of National climate strategies and outlook (COP27). The session was moderated by Dr. Ashraf Kamal, HBRC and included presentaions of:
• Overview of NDCs of the region – Eslam Mahdy, Guidehouse
• GlobalABC and the BuildingToCOP coalition - Nora Steurer, Global ABC / UNEP
• Regional view on the COP - Amira Ayoub, World GBC
• Egypt first national climate change strategy – Dr. Ashraf Kamal, HBRC
In the second session, the Guidehouse team continued by introducing the process for providing support to pilot projects on the ground in the BUILD_ME target countries. This was followed by the presentations of the pilot projects supported by BUILD_ME project, including:
• Badya project (Egypt), presented by Eng. Hatem Amin, Palm Hills Development
• Cairo West Residence, (Egypt), Presented by Eng. Ahmed Al Rakhawy, Al Dau Development
• KONN HOMES (Jordan), Arch. Basel Uraiqat, Konn Technologies.
The pilot projects presentations shown the results of cooperation with BUILD_ME project and covered the technical and financial analysis of energy efficiency measures which helped to significantly decrease the energy demand and achieve cost savings at the same time.
In the sustainable finance session, Moritz Schäfer (Guidehouse) moderated the discussion on how financial institutions can effectively support the climate friendly buildings in the MENA Region. Respectively, Peter Werner (Principle, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development EBRD) presented EBRD financial mechanisms to support the transition towards energy efficiency in the built environment in the MENA region.
The Wrap-Up and final remarks were then presented concluding that in the coming phase, BUILD_ME will continue developing the national classification schemes, tools and resources, reaching out to financial institutions to facilitate access to financing buildings energy efficiency projects.