Vertegy International is now able to offer companies dual certifications in LEED and QSAS
ST. LOUIS, Mo., Feb. 1, 2012… St. Louis-based Vertegy today announced that Thomas Taylor, general manager of the award-winning sustainability consulting firm and its newly established sister company, Vertegy International, W.L.L., recently passed the Qatar Sustainability Assessment System (QSAS) Certified Green Professional exam. As a result, Doha-based Vertegy International is now able to offer dual certification to companies in Qatar, helping them achieve QSAS certification, which is a relatively new sustainability rating system in Qatar, as well as LEED certification.
By being able to provide guidance to companies that are seeking QSAS certification, Vertegy International, which was established in October 2011, will help better serve the rising demand for sustainable project management in Qatar. The company has already enjoyed a strong presence in the country since 2007 and hopes to capture even more business now that it is a QSAS provider.
“In the next five years, Qatar plans to spend $45 billion constructing new hospitality sector developments and approximately $300 billion on its infrastructure leading up to the FIFA World Cup, which will be held in Qatar in 2022,” noted Taylor. “By being a QSAS certification provider and already having a great deal of experience in Qatar, we hope to lend our sustainable project management services to many more sustainable developments in the country over the next several years.”
QSAS was developed in 2009 to respond to Qatar’s local priorities while still creating a sustainable built environment that minimizes ecological impact. QSAS certification is based on a series of sustainable categories and criteria to help lower the impact on the environment. These categories include:
• Urban Connectivity, which consists of factors associated with the urban environment, such as zoning, transportation networks and loadings. Loadings on the urban environment include traffic congestion and pollution.
• Site, which consists of factors associated with land use, such as land conservation or remediation and site selection, planning and development.
• Energy, which consists of factors associated with energy demand of buildings, the efficiency of energy delivery, and the use of fossil energy sources that result in harmful emissions.
• Water, which consists of factors associated with water consumption and its associated burden on municipal supply and treatment systems.
• Materials, which consists of factors associated with material extraction, processing, manufacturing, distribution, use/re-use, and disposal.
• Indoor Environment, which consists of factors associated with indoor environmental quality, such as thermal comfort, air quality, acoustic quality, and light quality.
• Cultural & Economic Value, which consists of factors associated with cultural conservation and support of the national economy.
• Management & Operations, which consists of factors associated with building design management and operations.
Each facility is reviewed in the design, construction and operations phases. A score is awarded to each criterion based on the degree of compliance, with scores ranging from -1 to 3 (-1, 0, 1, 2, 3) or 0 to 3, depending on the level of impact on the environment. Once a score is assigned to each criterion, the values are multiplied by a weight, and a cumulative final score is determined. Facilities that earn a final score that is greater than or equal to zero will be certified with a rating of anywhere from one to six stars. The highest certification level is six stars, with a rating of 3.0. Assessments can be made for commercial facilities, core and shell buildings, schools, residences, mosques, hotels, light industry, and sports facilities.
Vertegy International provides LEED/sustainable project administration and training to companies seeking LEED or QSAS certifications in Qatar and other other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Taylor and founding partner Ghanim Al-Romaihi serve at the helm of Vertegy International, with Al-Romaihi overseeing the daily operations in Qatar.
The company can be reached at PO Box 39005 in Doha, Qatar, and a new website for the firm is being developed at www.vertegyconsultants.qa. In the meantime, for more information about Vertegy International, call 314.733.2666 or visit www.vertegyconsultants.com.
Founded in February 2005, Vertegy provides clients with design, procurement and construction consulting services for green and sustainable facilities. One of the key ways Vertegy serves clients is by helping them gain certification for their projects from various nationally and internationally recognized certification bodies, such as the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), which provides LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certification. Vertegy — which is derived from combining the Latin root for green and strategy — is based in St. Louis at the LEED Platinum Alberici Corporate Headquarters.
# # #
For more information, contact:
Pamela Powell, The Hauser Group, 314.436.9090
Thomas Taylor, Vertegy, 314.733.2666
Tags: Green Building, LEED, Qatar, Sustainability