International Construction: Royal BAM & Sustainable Practices in UAE

This report examines the growing importance of sustainable construction practices within the international construction sector, focusing on opportunities for global contractors in the UAE. It highlights the increasing construction activity in the UAE by international firms like Royal BAM Group and their efforts to minimize environmental impact through green construction designs. The report discusses the construction industry in the Middle East, emphasizing the opportunities presented by sustainable construction for global contractors, and strategies companies use to diversify their engagement in the global market. It also analyzes the positive and negative effects of a sustainable construction industry on the local construction industry, including advantages for local firms, while advocating for government encouragement of sustainable construction strategies among external business entrepreneurs operating in the region. The research uses a qualitative and descriptive approach, drawing on secondary data to explore how sustainable construction is embraced internationally and the opportunities available to international builders in implementing sustainable practices.

Running head: International Construction
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5th Sep 2018

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Abstract
The building and related construction activities create a crucial impact on the
environment. UAE has been witnessing increased construction activity in the home
country by international brands such as Royal BAM Group of Europe. The Royal
BAM is a very popular construction firm in Europe which specializes in civil
engineering and construction projects worldwide. The host country has been
benefited and at the same time making efforts to minimize the effect on the
environment of the new construction of buildings. A green construction design
philosophy is promoted in order to enhance the sustainability commitments of
conduct in UAE by International brand Royal BAM. The aim is to lower down
resource deletions and the carbon dioxide harmful gas emissions in these
constriction efforts and initiatives made by these global firms. There is a need that
the government of the nations uses and encourages external business
entrepreneurs entering the regional country to use sustainable means of construction
strategies such that it becomes a norm for such industries working in UAE.

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Table of Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................3
Company Overview......................................................................................................4
Research.......................................................................................................................5
Construction Industry in Middle East............................................................................6
Opportunities of sustainable construction for global contractors.................................8
Strategies of Company to Diversify Engagement in Global Market...........................11
Impact of International Market Strategies on Local Construction Industry................13
The positive effects of sustainable construction industry in Middle East...................14
The negative effects of a sustainable construction industry......................................16
Advantages of Local Construction Firms....................................................................16
Discussions.................................................................................................................18
Conclusion and Recommendations............................................................................18

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Introduction
The construction sector and creation of buildings play a significant role in society.
Not only do buildings provide a means to have a good standard of living for the
people of a country, but also adds crucial economic benefits as well. On the other
hand, the same sector is also highly responsive to be using natural resources at a
fast pace, consuming enormous energy, emission of greenhouse gases on a global
level, pollution in air and creation of enormous wastes. In the Middle East, of late
there has been an increasing concern about the negative effects of the construction
industry and its associated activities on the country's environment and resources.
The construction industry in the UAE is growing fast with a huge number of
international construction companies entering the market to offer high-end
technology and innovative construction services (Ding, 2014). As a ripple effect this
is also enhancing the standard of living and opportunities for local construction
company owners in UAE to grow, learn, compete and also act as local collaborators
and suppliers for these international traders. But, there is less focus given on
adopting additional methods and strategies to increase the quality of the
environment by making changes in building design and construction methods. The
concept of sustainability's now being realized as a necessity for internal construction
business and is needed for long-term sustenance.
Green construction essentially signifies the approach which considerations are made
by construction companies to reduce the use of resources and emission of wastes
and consumption of energy during the entire work cycle of these constructions.
These are commonly known as green building (Wang and Rivard, 2012).
Sustainable construction and green building are concepts which give global as well
as local constriction companies and to the entire construction, industry ways to

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develop positive approaches to environmental resources. Such practices put a lot of
emphasis in using sustainable construction sites, projects, efficient in water use,
conservation of energy, use of energy in an effective manner, materials which are
resource efficient to be used, minimization of waste, ventilation and many other
standard practices.
Company Overview
Royal BAM Group is a very popular company associated with civil and construction
activities in Europe since 1886. The company is from Holland. The firm has unified
with many collaborators and is distributing its services in two main lines of business
– constructions and civil engineering activities. The firm actively works as a PPP or
public-private partnerships. Royal BAM Construction Company has made a
noteworthy contribution to its native nation. This brand makes the famous
Amsterdam Aajx football club space along with Bataafsche Aanneming Maatschappij
(Baminternational, 2018).
The main feature of this construction company is its widely networked branches and
units in different countries where it operates. The firm believes in being close to its
customers, and the presence of Royal BAM is there in the Middle East, USA, Africa
and Australia as well. It provides high quality and highly innovative construction
solutions supported by technology and knows how to varied places in the world. The
main philosophy of the brand is to help the customers have a real value for their
investments. To achieve this company philosophy, Royal BAM works closely with the
customers (Jarrah, 2015). They believe in creating and maintaining a lasting
partnership by offering high quality and outstanding construction services. Be it
creation, maintenance, using innovation and expanding work Royal BAM has gained

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quite a lot of popularity with its plethora of impressive construction projects. The firm
has very experienced skilled employees with over 21,000 workforce delivering
thousands of quality projects delivered each year globally.
Research
Research Question
The main reach question here being addressed is how sustainable construction is
embraced internationally and what opportunities the international builders are getting
in implementing the concept in an international scenario.
Research method
The qualitative and descriptive research method is chosen in order to undergo this
research report. This method is simple and can take help and reference from
research made by other researchers in published journals and books.
Data
For this secondary research data is used and these are the data which another
researcher has generated on their research on the same subject. Here no interview
or survey is made. In order to get data research has explored many countries where
international construction developers are working and how they are addressing the
sustainability concept.
Literature Review
Construction Industry in the Middle East
Construction sector in the Middle East with special mention to Dubai suffered
setbacks in the year 2009. This was in succession of the financial crisis faced by the

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entire world which also increased the debt crisis for Dubai. A large number of
construction projects which was planned were hence paused. High gas and oil
revenues which then occurred during the time san between years 2008 till preset has
been helping Middle East One again witness its tourism sector expanded. This
flourishing expanding sector and re-exports and entry of a large number of global
traders to UAE have helped the country’s the economy recovered well. By the year
2012, the confidence of the customer was back, and activities in relation to the real
estate once again picked up along with heightening of prices. Overall the
construction sector is in an advantageous position (Liu, Zhao, and Yan, 2016).
Source – Norton Rose Fulbright
However, now the mindset of people has changed post the huge financial crisis the
world experienced back in 2008-2008 (Kibert, 2017). Today cautiously investments
are being made, and the focus is increasing on retails, infrastructure, commercial
projects, and the hospitality sector. The Middle East construction industry is on a
positive upward trend in recent years. Low oil costs although creating practical
challenges for the nation as the hydrocarbon sector is contributing to around 34.3%

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of the minimum GDP in the year 2014 (Driessche, 2015). The expansion of tourism
sector with more occurrences of international events such as Expo 2020 is creating
large opportunities for the government to invest further in enhancing the
infrastructure of transportation even in the middle of imbalances in the political arena
in the nation (Glavinich, 2014). UAE today is considered a safe haven for
entrepreneurs in a construction company to enter the market and grow exponentially.
Construction activities are ongoing for UAE.
Opportunities for sustainable construction for global contractors
The concerns on the effects of construction-related activities on the environment are
increasing exponentially, and measures are also being taken in order to take up
sustainable construction methods as a best practice for mitigating risks. These
sustainable measures can involve legal structures, technological, cultural and
managerial practices, and processes (Hill and Bowen, 2015). The entire construction
sector is experiencing a severe amount of pressure for adapting to environment-
friendly strategies and responsible actions toward the environment in order to enjoy
competitive advantages. However, in order to implement the environment
managerial systems in the construction sector, there are different barriers and
challenges as well. Construction sustainability hence is not an easy process and
rather a dilemma faced by major players in the construction industry.
In this report, Royal BAM Group construction sustainable actions in the Middle East
in Kuwait are being researched. Data was collected using a case study related to this
company’s construction projects from the perspective of the researcher (Roberts,
2017). This is a descriptive quantitative research methodology where data is
collected from secondary sources like journals and books explaining different case

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studies. The construction enterprises must develop robust and high innovative
strategies for an environmental manager for being in compliance with the
sustainability requirements and also take advantages from the varied opportunities
which arise from the integration of the best practices (Baloi, 2016).
The construction sector also plays a very big role in the development of the country
by both means economically and socially. It is the construction sector which plans,
develops, manufactures, designs and builds, modifies and maintains the construction
environment and it includes manufacturers and vendors supplying raw materials,
construction materials, contractors, customers, consultants, marketers, and uses of
the developed facilities. Sustainable construction is considered as a sustainable
development subset which is applied to the entire construction sector. It is defined as
the building and the responsibly related management of a construction environment
which is built based on resource efficiency and environment-friendly principles.
There are concerns over the deterioration of the environment which has been going
on from a very long time till recent times (Shen, 2015). The principles of sustainable
construction to be followed by global construction develops are focused on the
following:
 Maximized re-use of resources
 Minimize consumption of the resource
 Use recyclable and renewable resources
 Natural environment protection
 Development of a non-toxic and healthy ambiance.
 Development of a quality environment (Calautit and Hughes, 2016).

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Construction businesses that operate globally get enormous opportunity to embrace
three primary dimensions- social, environmental and economical in comparison to
the conventional industrial process where the main focus of economic growth,
durability, and utility. Social dimension helps developers address the various issues
and concerns in relation to the improvement of the quality of life of the people in the
country where the firm constructs infrastructure (Yoon and Tello, 2014). Economic
dimensions are addressing the different economic issues such as job creation,
enhancement of competition, lowering maintenance and operational costs, high
quality safe and secured work environment leading to better employee welfare and
productivity (Stavins, 2016). The global construction firms can also contribute
immensely to the country by embracing environmental dimensions such as focusing
on eco-friendly design, construction, maintained, operated, and deconstruction
attitudes in order to lower the negative impacts on the environment. These negative
impacts on the event are air based emissions, water resource use, water discharges,
use of land and many others.
The global construction entrepreneurs and builders are benefitting from adopting
sustainable measures. These are beneficial to products as well as processes. The
benefits to the work processes involve saving of material by reusing, recycling and
transforming wastes to valuable uses and creating safe work conditions, cost
reductions of the activities engaged with discharges, management of waste,
transportation, lowering energy use in production (Opoku and Fortune, 2015). The
benefits the builders are getting in terms of products are the high quality of
construction, lower cost of the life cycle and using safe construction processes. All
these together are acting in favor of these global construction firms who are

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developing a better brand image for themselves with their contributions to
environmental protection and responsible use of resources.
International enterprise over last few years has given a lot of efforts in the
enhancement of the level of energy efficiencies in new building construction and in
enhancing existing building development. Building development industry has huge
potential for the achievement of energy efficiency, co2 reduction in developed and
developing nations in the world. Currently, the construction sector contributes to
around 40% of the energy demands in the entire world and third contributions to co2
emissions (Lombard, 2018). As the population is rising all over the world, so is the
demands for high-end comforts rising and hence the time spent by people in
buildings are more. This means a large amount of energy consumption is
consistently being made all over the world. All these factors are opportunities for
global construction leaders and developers for detecting energy efficient building
construction and innovating technologies based on energy efficiency in order to
enhance sustainable development practices and achieving targets of energy
efficiency in organizations (Kuznik, David and Johannes, 2014).
There has been fast-paced development and innovation made in technologies which
encourage energy to be used efficiently in areas such as building raw materials,
passive development measures, and sensors. Designing building systems in the
environmentally friendly way and serving multiple functionalities will change the
varied facets of sustainability-related problems. Construction developers in the
international business need smart integration in between civil, architecture,
mechanical, environmental, electrical and structural policies, engineering, economic,
and social sciences (Farid, Khubhai and Hallaj, 2014). Responsible urbanization best

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practices at both the micro and macro level help developers lessen the varied
negative impacts of the building environment. The main focus is at the macro level in
the sustainability factors for the planet to sustainability micro-elements,
neighborhoods, and municipality and to distinct buildings, materials, components and
space occupied by individuals. Changes made in building design give the enormous
opportunity for builders to use a multidisciplinary approach and enhance life quality
of individuals, corporations and the wider community and society. It gives ways
towards holistic thinking in every sector (Sharma, Tyagi, and Buddhi, 2014).
Strategies of Company to Diversify Engagement in Global Market
Green Building
One of the major strategies Royal BAM global construction company is adopting is
green building in order to diversify itself better in the world of sustainable
construction. The Middle East like all other nations in the world takes responsibility of
implementing such concepts and encourages and welcomes any enterprises which
adopt environment-friendly process while developing and building infrastructure.
Green building is the characteristics and quality of structures which are built on the
lines of methodologies and principles which aids sustainable constructions. A green
building is a health facility which is specifically designed and also built in a restored
effective manner based on ecological principles and techniques. Officials also define
green building as the process used for enhancing efficiency in which buildings will be
using water, energ6 and materials and lower impact of the building on environment
and human health using a better design, construction, siting, maintenance,
operations, and removal thus completing the entire life cycle of building development
(Tunji-Olayeni, Mosaku and Oyeyipo, 2018).