Al Janoub Stadium Hosts Workshop on Environmentally-Sustainable Stadium Operations

Doha, November 19 (QNA) - The Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) held a seminar to share knowledge with stadium operators about environmental sustainability. Held at Al Janoub Stadium one of eight venues slated to host matches during Qatar 2022 the training was delivered by the SC in collaboration with the Gulf Organisation for Research and Development (GORD) and Mosanada, a Qatari company which specializes in facilities management and will be responsible for operational activities at World Cup venues. The training will help to ensure that sustainability commitments outlined in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Sustainability Strategy are met during the operational phase of the stadiums. It also provided an opportunity for design and construction teams to transfer knowledge about environmental sustainability to those who will manage day-to-day affairs at Qatar 2022 venues. Al Janoub Stadium Manager Abdulaziz Al Ishaq, is tasked with ensuring operations are optimized over the next two years to ensure the venue meets its sustainability targets. "This is the first stadium in the world that had air conditioning embedded in its design...as such, sustainability thinking has been at the heart of the stadium since its construction and now we are ensuring that this type of thinking carries over to the operation of the stadium," Al Ishaq said. Sustainability Specialist at the SC Engineer Abdulrahman Al Muftah said: "This training is an important step towards gaining GSAS certifications in operations, seeing that we are now complete with the design and construction of this and many of our other stadiums. "During this one-day session, we brought together the venue management teams from all of our Qatar 2022 stadiums to share with them our vision and requirements of operating these venues in an environmentally sustainable way." Commenting on the importance of environmental sustainability training to the company’s success, Adam Wood, Deputy Director of Business Solutions at Mosanada, said: "We wanted to bring people from different stadiums to participate in this session, learn together, bounce ideas and share challenges." "The training focused on different areas such as water, energy and the indoor environment, and stressed that the choices they make have a real influence on energy and water use," Wood added. At the heart of efforts to ensure Qatar 2022 meets its environmental sustainability goals is for all stadiums to achieve a four-star certification from the Global Sustainability Assessment System (GSAS) for design and build and construction management, along with a gold certification for operations. Developed by GORD, GSAS is the first performance-based system in the Middle East and North Africa region to be developed specifically for rating green buildings and infrastructure. With just over two years to go to the World Cup, all eight stadiums will be used for test events in the lead-up to the tournament, meaning operators will have ample opportunity to fine tune their operational procedures prior to the big kick-off on Nov. 21 of 2022. (QNA)