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The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Minister of Environment, HE Dr. Rashid Ahmed Bin Fahad, announced this week the formation of a new energy efficiency program called the Emirates Energy Star program, aimed at reducing the energy consumption of buildings.  With estimates for building energy consumption upwards of 40% in the region, any effort to bring down energy consumption is a welcome change. This new system builds on the memorandum of understanding signed earlier this year by Etisalat and Pacific Control Systems that will allow the two companies to collaborate on applications that make equipment and building monitoring seamless and efficient. Based on Machine to Machine (M2M) technologies that allow owners to monitor, manage, and optimize the operation of equipment remotely, these new control systems will be used by building managers, contractors, real estate companies, infrastructure owners, governments, and more to effect cost-effective and up to the minute changes to energy services to minimize energy use and maximize efficiencies. These systems are made up of sensors, software, and other applications that bring together a wealth of information necessary to reduce energy consumption in sectors like smart metering, building and asset management, fleet management, point of sale solutions, and even health care. Entities interested in participating in the program will first receive an Emirates Energy Star audit to determine potential Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs), which will then be turned into actionable items and projected energy savings. Participants can earn one of five successive levels based on how efficient they become. The minimum efficiency improvement is 10%, with levels reaching up to 30% and beyond. Though the energy efficiency improvements will require an initial investment, estimates are that the Emirates Energy Star program will provide a payback of 18-24 months, likely garnering a high participation level from building and asset owners in the region. We have not yet seen how the Emirates Energy Star program will interact with the Estidama Pearl Rating System launched in Abu Dhabi earlier this year (Estidama is a building efficiency rating system modeled after LEED and BREEAM),  but hopefully the two can work together to spur this kind of sustainable building design work in that region. We recently discussed Estidama in this blog.