A burgeoning human population. Need for urbanization. Climate-change. Net-zero by 2050. These contradictory yet causal macro-conditions pose the most complex challenge for the built environment yet. In order to tackle these social, economic, and environmental challenges as well as prevent irreversible climate change, policy suggestions have put the focus on sustainable micro-communities to make effective use of natural resources, enhance the environment, promote social cohesion, establish inclusion and strengthen economic prosperity.  

The creation of a community in which people want to live and work, now and tomorrow, and will not be ravaged by the fall-out of climate-change, hence goes beyond simple placemaking. The World Bank outlines four key dimensions to build the concept of “sustainable cities and communities” – environmentally sustainable, resilient, inclusive, and competitive. The international body says that achieving these key dimensions while setting up a community is one of the ways to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. 

The United States Environment Protection Agency as part of its recommendations to help build sustainable communities suggests policy frameworks to mitigate and adapt communities to climate change. As part of mitigation efforts, the EPA emphasises on water and energy-efficient buildings and land use patterns so that communities can continue to thrive if energy prices rise. “This strategy can also help communities and their residents better cope with drought and extreme heat”, says EPA. 

Mapping the trends shaping sustainable cities as we live through climate change is Karim El-Jisr, Chief Sustainability Officer of Diamond Developers. El-Jisr presented at the Smart Built Environment Forum 2022 on “The Value in Being Green”. Diamond Developers were also awarded the “Developer of the Year” prize at the recently held Smart Build Environment Awards 2022 as they have set an industry-standard in building sustainable communities – with The Sustainable City becoming an aspirational benchmark. El-Jisr said, “For communities to be more sustainable, we must pay attention to embodied carbon during construction, and operational energy during the use phase. This is an important factor for people while choosing the community they want to live in because they want to reduce the cost of living.” 

He also spoke about living “smart”. Expanding on the interpretation of the term El-Jisr said, “We believe that the first trend is smart cities and smart housing that focus on sustainability and decarbonization. The second trend is to then deploy PropTech and automation to be more energy efficient and water efficient, and ultimately aim to support a more sustainable lifestyle. And the third trend is indoor well-being. We spend more than 90% of our time indoors and the focus is now on indoor air quality. People are more appreciative of indoor air quality and hence we need to focus on ventilation, MEP and the complete system. These are very striking trends that are here to stay.”

The UAE is at the forefront of creating sustainable communities and the government’s work is recognized globally with the country placing 24th in the World Happiness Index this year. The country’s happiness ranking owes itself to many factors and among them are thriving communities managed by leading community management companies. As part of their agenda to manage communities and owners’ associations, community managers are creating and maintaining a framework that allows people, families, and society to live sustainably and thrive. Francis Giani, Chief Community Management Officer at Nakheel says, “In line with the Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan, Nakheel Community Management is committed to developing vibrant, healthy, and inclusive communities, with leisure areas, sports facilities, events and activations to create plenty of opportunities for our residents to interact and build relationships and providing and creating an overall healthy environment for residents and visitors”.

The phrase “healthy environment to live” has been interpreted by Nakheel to mean – managing the physical and mental health of its residents. Giani says, “Our community-focus and resident/customer-centric objectives are about creating that sense of belonging, it is making sure that you create a coherence between residents and their wider community, creating opportunities for them to get together. Creating a sense of neighbourliness, especially in a cosmopolitan city such as Dubai is essential. We all reminisce about the days we grew up in our communities and neighbourhoods back home where everyone knew each other on their street, where you knew all the children and the families. Recreating this is the key to creating the sense of belonging in a master community.”

Imbuing a sense of belonging to aid the overall health of residents in a community also includes access to nature. Spending time in nature has been shown to help with mental health challenges such as depression and anxiety. This connection if incorporated by the building industry at the design phase of community development allows increased occupant access to the natural environment and helps make the community a nature-friendly, sustainable one from the get-go. Biophilic design has been used by architects to incorporate nature into building spaces to contribute to the health and well-being of occupants says Karim El-Jisr. “People want to see nature, want to see trees, birds, fish, the ocean and this is something we have to bring into our cities. The biophilic approach is one such way.”

But for a huge section of the built world, being sustainable, creating space for nature, and protecting the environment is being introduced in recent years and months as governments create policies and frameworks to reduce the carbon footprint of its citizens. Hence becoming a green community, being sustainable and eco-friendly can be driven by community managers says San Banerjee, CEO & Co-founder of ADDA, a superApp for community management. She says that she knows of communities that shut down the waste-disposal chutes in vertical communities as the chutes prevent waste-segregation at source. “Waste-segregation at source is one of the basic tenets of waste management. I know of certain forward, and radical thinking community managers who have instituted door-to-door waste collection of segregated waste to be more environmentally conscious of how their waste is disposed and hence ensure overall reduction of carbon footprint. Such an action can only be driven through community managers and residents as external commercial companies would face an immense amount of resistance to such change.”

Francis Giani explains how Nakheel Community Management went about instituting eco-friendly practices across its properties. “We endeavour to instil a culture of conscious and sustainable living across our communities which is important to ensure a quality living experience. Our teams run regular awareness campaigns to encourage residents to adopt recycling practices and understand what items can be recycled, and what to avoid. Our other initiatives include collection of used cooking oil from residents for producing biodiesel, as well as encouraging residents to participate in sustainability initiatives like Dubai Can and RECAPP. Our teams constantly encourage residents and service providers to actively engage in awareness campaigns aimed at protecting the environment and resource conservation.”

The path to becoming more sustainable is being aided by technology which is deployed in managing communities in various ways. From adapting small home automation systems to enhance energy efficiency and reducing energy footprint to pushing operational efficiency, creating smart mobility, and many more such efforts, technology is at the heart of the sustainability push. Karim El-Jisr describes the tech-driven approach to sustainability as, “technology is a beautiful opportunity and the veneer through which we can achieve sustainable housing.”

From the operational point of view Giani says, “The digital team at Nakheel Community Management is pioneering technology driven customer services, by implementing a multichannel approach to ensure that messages and essential information are being delivered to residents, with concerns constantly monitored online and raised for resolution or management by the community customer care team on the ground within a minimal period of time.”

Sustainable communities are the future as humanity is faced with a tipping point of irreversible climate change. Community managers have the immense responsibility of steering their communities and in turn societies towards a green future.