Estidama Certification

What is Estidama Certification?

Estidama, meaning "sustainability" in Arabic, is a green building certification system by the Abu Dhabi government. It promotes sustainable planning and development, ensuring sustainability, infrastructure capacity, and quality of life.

The initiative uses the Pearl Rating System (PRS) to gauge sustainability performance of buildings and communities. It supports Abu Dhabi 2030's vision and the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council's efforts to foster education, employment, and improved living standards.

What is Estidama Certification Rating System?

The Pearl Rating System (PRS) under Estidama assesses sustainability performance:

• Pearl Building Rating System (PBRS): For rating both new and existing buildings, including commercial and residential.
• Pearl Villa Rating System (PVRS): Tailored for standalone villas, with a mandatory minimum of 1 Pearl rating for new villas.
• Pearl Community Rating System (PCRS): Evaluates large developments, focusing on sustainable land use, transport, and natural resource preservation.

Ratings span from 1 to 5 Pearls, reflecting the sustainability level, with 5 being the pinnacle.

What are the Levels of Estidama Certificate?

The PRS assesses buildings, communities, and villas on a scale of 1 to 5 Pearls:

- 1 Pearl: Minimum requirement ensuring basic sustainability.

- 2 Pearls: Notable improvement in sustainability.

- 3 Pearls: Advanced sustainability.

- 4 Pearls: Exceptional sustainability performance.

- 5 Pearls: World-leading sustainability.

Achieving each level requires fulfilling a mix of mandatory and optional credits across categories like energy, water, and indoor quality.

How does the Estidama Certification Process work?

- Pre-Design: Training on Estidama Certificate principles and PRS requirements by the Urban Planning Council (UPC).

- Design: Initial design to meet PRS, followed by a detailed review.

- Submission: Design documentation submitted to UPC. Higher ratings may require third-party verification.

- Construction: On-site checks to validate PRS compliance.

- Post-Construction: Submission demonstrating PRS-compliant construction, leading to Pearl Construction Rating.

- Operational Phase (For Community): Assessment for Pearl Operation Rating post-occupancy, with periodic evaluations for continued compliance.

The certification process has feedback loops ensuring sustainability throughout the project's lifecycle.

As ERKE, with our team of accredited Green Building experts, we have been providing consulting services for over 150 Green Building projects since 2007. We continue to provide consultancy for more than 70 Green Building projects actively in Türkiye and in many countries, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Malta, Italy, South Korea,and Egypt.