Expo 2020 Dubai will be unveiling further details of its plans to stage a sustainable world expo from delivery to legacy at the upcoming Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW) in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

The event runs from January 13 to 20 at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (Adnec).

Sustainability is a key subtheme of the first World Expo to be staged in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) and organisers hope that its influence will lead to changes not only in the UAE, but also in the region and around the world.

A key part of Expo’s stand will be a detailed model of its iconic Sustainability Pavilion that was unveiled at the ADSW last year.

It is designed to be one of the most self-sustaining buildings in the region, producing much of its energy and water requirements through solar panels and recycling water, among other methods.

Experts have estimated that the pavilion will generate enough energy to power a Nissan Leaf electric vehicle to travel nearly halfway to Mars (around 23 million km) while producing 22,000 litres of water per day at peak capacity – more than enough to fill three Olympic-sized pools per year.

But the pavilion, which will become a Children and Science Centre in Expo’s legacy development District 2020, will be by no means the only structure in the Expo site with impressive sustainability credentials.

The target set by Expo is to achieve at least the Leed (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)  Gold certification for all permanent buildings – which will form the core part of District 2020 – and ensure that half of its electricity will be garnered from renewable sources supported by Official Sustainability Energy Partner, Dewa.

Using smart building and smart grid technologies, Expo 2020 is also aiming to reduce energy consumption by 20 per cent (or around 150,000 megawatt hours of energy), with the support from Siemens, Expo’s Premier Partner for Intelligent Infrastructure and Operations.

Equally, Expo’s current busy on-site construction is being carried out with the welfare of the environment as a priority. Expo organisers say that it is on target to divert 85 per cent of waste from landfill. In 2017 alone, this amounted to some 370,000 tonnes – the weight of about 950 Emirates A380 jumbo jets.

Additionally, Expo will use the ADSW to underline the impact it is already making by supporting innovative projects from around the world that are improving lives and helping preserve the planet.

Spearheading this is Expo Live, a $100-million innovation and partnership programme, also officially launched a year ago.

After two rounds of grants, it is already supporting 45 global innovators from 30 countries, with 18 projects that focus particularly on sustainability including one that uses high-flying kites to harness wind energy and another that purifies water through solar power. Visitors will be able to interact with prototypes from six projects at the Expo stand.

Several of Expo’s executive team will be at ADSW during the course of the week, including Dubai Expo 2020 Bureau executive director Najeeb Mohammed Al Ali, who will be announcing an exciting new sustainability initiative on January 15 aimed at leaving a lasting legacy across the UAE. – TradeArabia News Service