The Masdar Institute building has been designed to minimize water consumption and maximize the efficiency of treatment and production techniques.

 In the long term the goal is to reduce, in stages, the domestic water consumption to the target potable water consumption of 105 liters per person per day, with an initial target of 179 liters per person per day, far below business as usual. The improvement from 179 per person per day to 105 per person per day is expected to be achieved through increased environmental awareness to residents over time.

Water-use reduction technologies include high efficiency appliances, low-flow showers, highly efficient laundry systems, a water tariff that promotes water efficiency, incentives, real-time monitoring, smart water meters that inform consumers of their consumption, reducing leakage ultimately to 1%, treated wastewater recycling, and high-efficiency irrigation and low-water use landscaping, particularly through use of indigenous desert flora.

The current wastewater system combines grey water and black water for processing and treatment at the city’s membrane bioreactor (MBR) plant. The treated sewage effluent produced at the MBR will be used for landscaping. The biosolids resulting from the wastewater treatment can be reused for compositing and in any future waste-to-energy plant.

Waste Management

The waste management strategy at the Masdar Institute building seeks to minimize waste to landfill and maximize the resource potential of materials (recycling and reuse).

As a first step, systems will be used and awareness will be raised to reduce the amount of waste generated in the city, by encouraging reusable bags and containers. The next step is to sort and collect the waste produced by those living and working here.

Masdar Institute buildings have separate waste chutes to allow for the separation of waste. Once collected, the waste is sorted into compostable, non-recyclable and recyclable waste. All appropriate bio-waste will be composted and the product used to enrich the landscaping. At a future date recyclable waste will be processed in the city or as close by as possible.