The global market for green building material is set to expand to more than USD 406 billion by 2015, and this is expected to be largely driven by energy costs and increased awareness of the contribution of green buildings to long-term benefits. A growing demand for green building material has been noted in the regional real estate industry.

This is driven by the increasing stress on implementation of green building standards by local governments and civil authorities. Concern about the construction industry’s impact on the local environment and a realisa-tion of the need for sustainable development has fuelled a drive to align the construction industry to green building standards.

Governments around the region are enacting legislation to bring the industry in line with green building standards. For instance, Abu Dhabi has rolled out its own rating system - Estidama, where all new com-mercial and government development projects in the emirate must comply with the standards set by the system. Similary, Dubai too has been driving this change through increasing implementation of LEED standards across the construction industry.

Green roofs is one of the largest and fastest emerging product categories currently. The practice of planted green roofs is gaining momentum across the industry and is given a strong push by local authorities who are spearheading initiatives to increase the number of green roof projects in the region.