Chairman and CEO Talal Shair Launches Sidara at COP28UAE

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for being here. Our world needs an advocate. From geopolitical conflict to concern over emerging technologies, our global community has no shortage of challenges to overcome. But perhaps the single greatest threat to our collective future, and the one we are gathered here to address, is climate change. Climate change strikes at the heart of the only planet we can call home. The loss of our world's greatest forests, more frequent and destructive wildfires and weather events, and what experts call the greatest mass extinction event in 65 million years. We are inching ever closer to the critical threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius. We can no longer afford business as usual. The great truth, however, is that we do have transformative solutions to recover our planet, regenerate ecosystems at scale, and create a more sustainable world for future generations. But that requires us to reach beyond low-hanging fruit and focus on tackling those climate culprits that have the greatest emissions and are hardest to abate.

The built environment. We know that buildings account for about 40% of global emissions, and transportation and other infrastructure account for a further 30 to 35%. We know that most extracted resources end up in our cities. And we know that as engineers and designers of the built environment, we have a unique opportunity to craft solutions that reduce emissions and create healthier, more sustainable buildings and cities. That is why we are once again here at COP. We are here to reaffirm and strengthen our commitment to the World Green Building Council's Net Zero Carbon Buildings initiative, which our global network signed in 2020 and 2021. And we are here as a signatory to the UAE's Climate Responsible Companies pledge, under which we pledge to support the UAE on its transition to net zero.

Through those agreements, we have committed to reaching net zero in our own operations. We committed to supporting our clients on their own decarbonization and energy transition journeys, so we could collectively reach a world where net zero is possible. And we committed to partnering with leaders across our industry to push forward advocacy and thought leadership that can bring real solutions to climate challenges. For the past three years, we have backed our participation at COP with market-leading insights that craft solutions and pathways for our clients and our industry to enact meaningful, long-term change.

Long before we designed and set up this net zero booth for our participation here in the Green Zone, Dar entered into a first-of-its-kind regional collaboration with PwC to advocate for sustainable solutions in the regional built environment. Together, Dar and PwC have introduced solutions that bend the carbon curve in the built environment, enhance the livability of cities, and accelerate economic performance for clients, regional investors, governments, and communities. We have been presenting these solutions directly to clients and stakeholders across the region. On a separate stream, our companies have come together to research sustainable solutions for sectors that have historically been highly polluting and difficult to decarbonize. We are looking at net zero solutions for aviation, going beyond airports to the aircraft themselves. We are presenting solutions and pathways to decarbonize everything from critical care hospitals to data centers, the world's new nervous system. Our research builds on solutions that already exist, from sustainable aviation fuels to green hydrogen, and we are focusing on what the transition means to clients right now.

What we discovered during our research and sustainability projects is that pursuing net zero is far beyond a matter of simply designing differently or incorporating certain technologies. It is, at heart, a human endeavor to create healthier, more inclusive, and more resilient spaces that empower people to thrive and grow. To craft enduring change, we must bring our best visionaries and problem solvers together to take collective action and solve the world's biggest and most critical challenges. Over the past year, we undertook an incredible journey to align our Dar House of Brands with that mission, which for us was to advocate for the world as we would for our own home.

Since the group was formed, we have sought to hear what our clients and our people truly need. We then assembled a team of the world's very best brands and companies to solve those challenges with innovation and holistic systems thinking. Dar created a local home for excellence in design, engineering, and consultancy in communities around the world. Perkins and Will brought visionary design to create places that honor humanity. T.Y. Lin Group designed resilient infrastructure solutions that connect and elevate communities. Penspen leads with energy transition, opening pathways to cleaner energy infrastructure. K and Brown came with world-leading project management and advisory services to bring even the most complex projects home successfully. And more recent initiatives like PARA and Copper3 Analytics brought our network world-class capabilities in digital twin solutions and building analytics. Every brand that has joined our global network brings exceptional value to our communities.

We are incredibly proud of our history as the only collective in our industry to operate as a home for unique brands. As colleagues consolidated under one, we celebrated our diversity, maintained intimate connections with clients, and honored the spirits of our founders. This year, we held immersive conversations with leading clients, spoke to employees across our network, and sought out rising next-generation STEM talent from universities as far as MIT to the American University of Beirut. We heard firsthand that our clients are seeking advocates for change. They want design consultants who advance the human experience, proactively seek unconventional solutions, and demonstrate leadership in livability. They want superior sustainability advisory and breakthrough tech innovation. But most importantly, our clients are seeking partnerships and deep accountability. Meanwhile, the star talents we seek want to see a firm that drives employee growth, encourages exploration, crafts breakthrough solutions with impact, and contributes to a better world.

These insights inspired us to find a better way of sharing our story with the world, which is why I am delighted to announce before you all for the first time that Dar Group has officially become Sidara. Our new brand promise to you is that we are the home for human endeavor. Together, the Sidara companies will be the home for declarative advocacy leadership, standing up for people and planet. Our mission is to advance the human experience, serving with humility, integrity, and deep respect. As the home for human endeavor, we will bravely step up, taking on ambitious projects, pushing the limits of what is possible. Sidara will focus on driving breakthroughs, innovations, and measurable impact in three critical issues: livability, sustainability, and digital.

On sustainability, our companies will help shape a sustainable world where nature is nurtured and humanity's footprint leaves little trace. We will continue to support clients in reducing emissions, bringing the circular economy to life, and improving well-being in hospitals, schools, workplaces. We envision new solutions in policy and transportation to improve equity and restore ecosystems. We designed the infrastructure for a new energy world, just as we did with the Google Bay View project. Bay View is the largest LEED Platinum certified project in the world and is expected to be the largest facility to attain the International Living Future Institute Living Building Challenge Water Petal certification. It is nature positive. Bay View will help conserve water and electricity and protect the environment, helping to regenerate the Bay Area. We are proud our team was behind the execution of this project, an example of Sidara achieving global firsts.

On livability, we believe the built environment should bring people together and improve quality of life. Sidara will shift the paradigm. We shape places that unite communities, empower their economies, and inspire a more equitable, seamless, and delightful world. From designing the largest culture and arts experience for African-Americans with direct community influence, Destination Crenshaw in Los Angeles, to shaping Princess Noura bint Abdulrahman University, Saudi Arabia's first university for women, we are elevating the way people live. On digital, we help clients deploy state-of-the-art technologies such as digital twins and advanced analytics. The Magdi Yacoub Global Heart Center is an example. Our detail design incorporated innovative systems and sustainable engineering measures to augment energy efficiency and meet environmental targets. The center exceeded expectations to reach LEED Gold.

Our time is now. The world's challenges will not wait, but we can take heart from what clients and communities are undertaking. In Angola, despite easier use of oil resources, the government led one of the most ambitious renewable energy ventures in sub-Saharan Africa, delivering clean energy for a million people. Those ambitious ventures are exactly what our world needs. Sidara and our teams of visionaries, thinkers, and pioneers will continue to strive and advocate for a better world. Our blueprints today are the footprints of tomorrow. Together we will ensure that we always build a world that is as cared for and welcoming as home. Thank you.