Ahmed bin Mohammed honours winning projects of the Dubai International Best Practices Award for Sustainable Development

Under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Second Deputy Ruler of Dubai, honoured the winners of the ‘Dubai International Best Practices Award for Sustainable Development’, during the 11th edition of the World Governments Summit (WGS) 2024.
The award, organised by the Dubai Municipality in collaboration with UN-Habitat, recognises and supports the most innovative global concepts, initiatives, and practices that enhance resilience, quality of life, and the global living environment, thereby positively influencing the development of future cities.
His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed emphasised that the award is a reflection of the exceptional approaches of the UAE as well as the emirate of Dubai in embracing sustainable development concepts and practices. Its position, global standing, and crucial role in fostering international cooperation is evidently reflected in the creation of a common and unified area for tackling the problems of climate change, food security, and sustainability, as well as providing access to ground-breaking solutions for constructing futuristic sustainable societies.
His Highness highlighted that the UAE currently serves as a global role model for sustainable and comprehensive development that places a major emphasis on raising the quality of life and well-being of individuals, while fostering social, economic, and urban prosperity in communities by upholding the highest environmental standards.
Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed said: “We would like to commend all the recipients of the Dubai International Best Practices Award for Sustainable Development. The award successfully served as a global platform for stimulating creative minds and inspiring individuals to design more innovative and ground-breaking solutions that contribute to building the cities of the future. Furthermore, this award has been instrumental in constructing inclusive communities with sustainable and integrated health, food, environmental systems as well as digital and smart engineering infrastructure, which help provide the best quality of life and well-being for future generations.”
Winning projects
‘BAM - Biblioteca degli Alberi Milano Tree Library Project,’ from Italy won the Dubai International Best Practices Award for Sustainable Development in the category of Best Practices in Urban Regeneration and Public Spaces. A project named ‘Scion Innovation Hub’ from New Zealand secured the award in the category of The Most Beautiful, Innovative Iconic Building Practices. ‘EatCloud Zero Food Waste - Zero emissions - Zero Hunger,’ from Colombia was honoured in the category of Best Practices in Sustaining Urban Food Systems.
Furthermore, the ‘Gree Energy (The Hamparan Project) - Avoiding methane emissions from a cassava starch factory and generating clean energy,’ from Indonesia achieved the award in the category of Best Practices in Addressing Climate Change and Reducing Pollution. In the category of Best Practices in Urban Infrastructure Planning and Management, the project ‘Local Area Development Plan (LADP),’ from Egypt, won the award.
Comprehensive development
His Excellency Dawoud Al Hajri, Director General of Dubai Municipality, shed light on the UAE’s steadfast commitment to achieving comprehensive sustainable development through its variety of innovative plans and strategies. He stated that these strategies are targeted at creating a society with high standards of food security, self-sufficiency, health, social and educational care, economic prosperity, sustainable ecosystems as well as smart and sophisticated infrastructure. HE Al Hajri further added that this approach is in accordance with the directives of the leadership to strive for the highest standard of living and social welfare, besides securing a more sustainable future with improved quality of life for all members of the community.
Al Hajri said: “The Dubai International Best Practices Award for Sustainable Development echoes the robust policy and unwavering commitment of the UAE and Dubai to embrace cutting-edge practices that enhance quality of life in communities, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Additionally, it also showcases various ground-breaking global projects and practices that aim to create a positive influence and contribute to the advancement and development of future cities.”
Al Hajri added: “We added a new category in the award to recognise and honour the most exceptional and iconic building, which adheres various innovative and sustainable standards. The category requires buildings to combine numerous green building techniques, best design practices, as well as sophisticated and contemporary architecture in a way that enhances the prospects of community well-being, quality and performance.”
The award received 2,638 requests for participation from 144 different countries around the world. These requests were thoroughly examined by an advisory jury made up of 32 experts, technicians and specialised scientific personalities.
Best urban regeneration project
Italy’s ‘BAM - Biblioteca degli Alberi Milano Tree Library Project’ was awarded the Best Practices Award in the category of Urban Regeneration and Public Places. Part of the urban development project of Porta Nuova district, this project is the first in the world to secure both the LEED and WELL for Communities certifications. 
This project is the remarkable outcome of an innovative collaboration between the Municipality of Milan, the Riccardo Catella Foundation, and the COIMA. The objectives of this collaboration include maintaining public parks, fostering urban biodiversity, and bringing communities together through inclusive cultural initiatives and experiences. The BAM project, which is funded through fundraising, offers culturally enriching and free-of-cost programmes that are in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The most innovative building
The ‘Scion Innovation Hub – Te Whare Nui o Tuteata’ project of New Zealand secured the award in the category of the Most Beautiful, Innovative and Iconic Building. 
This project is poised to transform the landscape with its vision to reimagining the headquarters of the prestigious Sion Research Institute, which specialises in technology development for forestry. Located on the outskirts of Redwoods in the magnificent Whakarewarewa Forest, the primary goal of this project is to bring together a workforce that was previously dispersed across various small buildings across the campus, in a central innovation hub. It also seeks to improve the Sion Institute’s public interface by building a new campus arrival point.
Best urban food systems project 
The ‘EatCloud Zero Food Waste – Zero Emissions – Zero Hunger’ project of Colombia has been awarded the Best Practices Award in ‘Sustaining Urban Food Systems’. The project is led by EatCloud, a start-up company that is currently redistributing the largest portion of unsold food globally. The company’s major objectives include using data-driven solutions to reduce food waste, combat hunger, and help the environment.
The digital platform helps avoid food waste and redistribute unsold food to combat hunger on a large scale. They create an exceptional social and environmental impact by automating the management of excess food using artificial intelligence (AI), which results in significant cost savings in logistics and offer tax benefits.
Best pollution reduction project
The ‘Gree Energy (The Hamparan Project) - Avoiding methane emissions from a cassava starch factory and generating clean energy’ won the Best Practices Award in the category of Addressing Climate Change and Reducing Pollution.
As part of the project, Gree Energy offers solution for the cassava starch factory Hamparan, which was previously encountering problems, including unreliable electricity and methane emissions from wastewater treatment. The company was able to successfully convert the produced biogas into electricity, which reduced harmful emissions and improved the local community’s water quality. It further contributes to the global food supply chain and encourages sustainable development in rural areas.
Best urban management project
The Local Area Development Plan (LADP) of Egypt has been awarded the Best Practices Award in ‘Urban Infrastructure Planning and Management’. The LADP seeks to develop a detailed blueprint for the many informal areas in the Greater Cairo. The goal is to highlight the importance of stakeholder participation in the decision-making process and forge a strong connection between the planning phase and service execution.
Three different projects of the suggested plans have been executed. These plans involve revamping the fish market, renovating a school, and transforming an open canal into a park, as well as paving the roads in various areas.
Dubai Municipality as smart city partner
Dubai Municipality is participating as the smart city partner in the 11th edition of the World Government Summit. During this edition, the Summit features more than 4,000 participants, renowned thought leaders, international experts, 120 government delegations, as well as over 85 international and regional organisations, in addition to various other global institutions. The primary goal of this edition of the Summit is to explore the most important problems impacting the modern world as well as the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.
Furthermore, the Summit explores numerous methods for achieving shared goals to progress government efforts, enhance collaboration among global governments, share insights, and highlight successful examples and approaches in government work that have made a positive impact in their respective nations and communities.
 

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