Sustainable Building

Qatar’s plans to stage the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ required the construction or refurbishment of eight stadiums, numerous training sites and supporting temporary infrastructure. From the outset, the host country designed infrastructure to address local needs and have specific long-term uses post-tournament. Construction of the most major transport developments, such as the Doha Metro, as well as accommodation and commercial sites, had been planned in advance of Qatar winning the right to host the tournament and were aimed at addressing local needs.

The construction of infrastructure can generate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, disruptions to local biodiversity, construction and organic waste, other air emissions such as dust, and significant water use. Similarly, operating this infrastructure could potentially require a significant amount of energy and water, and generate different types of waste and GHG emissions. Some of these impacts are further exacerbated by the hot and arid environment that is typical in Qatar.

To address these challenges, and as per FIFA requirements, all FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ stadiums were designed and built following sustainable building standards. The Global Sustainability Assessment System (GSAS) was the sustainable building standard used for the certification of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ stadiums and the permanent offices of the tournament organisers in Qatar. To further manage their impacts, all stadiums were awarded GSAS certification for construction management, while six out of the eight stadiums were awarded GSAS operations certification.