Green-building certification a measure of progress, not end goal, IGBC 2026 hears

The sixth International Green Build Conference opened in Kuala Lumpur with a call to treat green-building certification as progress evidence rather than the finish line. Expo City Dubai's executive director urged cities to focus on creating resilience, biodiversity and human connection, not just cut

KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 10): Green-building certification should be treated as evidence of progress rather than the end goal for sustainable development, Expo City Dubai executive director Nadia Verjee told the sixth International Green Build Conference (IGBC) today.

“Sustainability should not be seen as a constraint on economic growth. Instead of only asking how to use less energy, water, carbon and materials, cities should ask what they can create more of — resilience, biodiversity, productive economies, human connection and value,” she said in a talk titled “Shaping Sustainable Urban Futures: Strategic Partnerships for Global Impact”.

Verjee called this approach “place power” — the ability of places to compound economic, social, environmental and cultural value through a single urban intervention. Drawing on Dubai’s experience, she noted that about 80 per cent of the built infrastructure from Expo 2020, hosted from October 2021 to March 2022, has been retained and repurposed, and that more than one million tonnes of excavation material had been reused.

“The legacy was always the design,” she said, adding that Expo City sits deliberately at the heart of Dubai's growth corridor and supports the Dubai Economic Agenda, D33, as one of the urban centres identified within the 2040 Urban Master Plan.

In the final session of the day, energy experts debated “Decarbonising at Scale: Energy, Infrastructure and the Digital Backbone of Sustainability”. Malaysian Nuclear Agency Technical Support Division director Dr Julia Abdul Karim said discussions surrounding clean energy should not be framed as a choice between nuclear and renewable energy. “From the technical perspective, there is unlikely to be a single technology that can address all of these requirements. … The useful question is, what combination of technology gives Malaysia the most secure, affordable, resilient, and low-carbon energy system over the next 20 to 30 years?” she said.

Advisory Council for Atomic Energy chairman Datuk Raja Abdul Aziz Raja Adnan noted that Malaysia is about to phase out coal and must replace about 7 gigawatts of electricity. “We have invested heavily in renewables. But you and I know the problems facing renewables. It is intermittent at best. … Therefore, we will have to be supported by the best battery energy storage systems,” he said, adding that the artificial intelligence industry also requires low-carbon power where nuclear can complement renewable energy.

The conference will continue tomorrow under the theme “Path to Sustainable Cities for All: The Urban Transition Towards Net Zero”. IGBC is part of International Sustainability Week 2026, which also includes the GreenScape 2026 exhibition running concurrently.