Ownership of Estidama Villa Products Database transferred to QCC

Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business

The Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council (UPC) will be transferring ownership of Estidama Villa Products Database (EVPD) to Abu Dhabi Quality and Conformity Council (QCC). This transition has been decided by Abu Dhabi Government in order to utilize QCC capabilities to enhance product quality and to build upon the successful implementation of the Estidama Pearl Rating System.
Estidama represents the vision to create a sustainable Abu Dhabi with one of its key components being the Pearl Rating System (PRS) which is the Arab world’s first sustainability rating system designed to assess the sustainability performance of buildings, communities and villas throughout the project’s lifecycle.
May 2011, marked a significant milestone towards this vision as the Estidama Villa Product Database (EVPD) was launched with the aim of creating a database of products deemed compliant with the Pearl Villa Rating System (PVRS) requirements. The EVPD proved to be instrumental platform for sharing market-place information covering over 2,000 technically compliant products from approximately 125 suppliers.
The transfer of the EVPD is aligned with both QCC’s conformity goal to ensure products meet the highest level of safety, quality and sustainability requirements and the UPC’s Estidama mandate to transform Abu Dhabi into a model of sustainable urbanization.
The announcements were made as part of QCC’s participation in the tenth edition of the World Future Energy Summit (WFES), the Middle East’s largest gathering on future energy that is currently underway at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC).
Salem bin Khalid Al Qassimi, Director of Conformity Scheme Services at QCC said: “In line with our responsibility to advance quality infrastructure in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, we are working closely with relevant public and private stakeholders to improve the quality of products circulated in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and to minimize the impact of products on human health and the natural environment. We partnered with UPC to enable the implementation of Estidama guidelines. To achieve this goal, we engage our stakeholders from the early stages of the scheme development to ensure that manufacturers and suppliers of building materials are well aware of the quality standards and can prepare for the upcoming requirements. This process consistently ensures that the materials and technologies used in the construction industry are environmental friendly and use resources efficiently according to the globally accepted norms and standards.”
“At QCC, we aim to promote the culture of quality in Abu Dhabi and enhance the competitiveness of our economy towards achieving the objectives of the Abu Dhabi Plan. To this end, we have launched the Abu Dhabi Environmental Performance Trustmark, which certifies that products bearing the Trustmark meet all relevant statutory requirements as well as the mandatory quality, environmental performance and safety standards,” Al Qassimi added.
Yasmeen Al Rashedi, Senior Manager – Estidama Department, Urban Development & Estidama Sector at UPC said: “The EVPD has been instrumental to the successful implementation of the Estidama Pearl Rating Systems by providing assurance of product compliance and serving as platform for suppliers to showcase their technically compliant products. The UPC looks forward to our ongoing collaboration with QCC as we work together with a common goal of creating a more sustainable built environment.”
The Abu Dhabi Quality and Conformity Council was established in 2009 to raise the quality of Abu Dhabi’s exports and products traded locally, while protecting the interests of the emirate’s consumers and supporting its competitive economy. The organization’s goals are achieved through enabling regulators to establish and implement product safety, legal metrology and conformity schemes. QCC also sets guidelines and benchmarks to identify and verify that the products manufactured and traded in the emirate conform to the highest quality standards.