Al Sa'fat – Dubai Green Building System is Dubai Municipality's green building regulation; the current version is the 2nd edition of January 2023. It is organised into seven sections covering definitions, application, ecology and planning, building vitality, energy efficiency, water, and materials and waste.

What are the Al Sa'fat rating levels?

The base level is the Sa'fa, with three higher cumulative levels: Silver Sa'fa, Golden Sa'fa and Platinum Sa'fa. Golden requirements include all Silver requirements, and Platinum requirements come in addition to Silver and Golden.

Which buildings must comply with Al Sa'fat?

The regulations apply across the typologies in Article 201.01: villas, residential and commercial buildings, public buildings and industrial buildings. In mixed-use buildings each portion complies with the rules for its typology, and a change of use brings the new use under the regulations.

How does Al Sa'fat relate to the Dubai Building Code?

They work as a pair. Al Sa'fat points to specific DBC requirements — Part G metering, Part H air-conditioning metering and building management systems, Part E exterior lighting, Part C accessibility — and the DBC references Al Sa'fat for green building requirements such as materials.

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SparkProof AI5 min read

Al Sa'fat Green Building Rating Explained: Levels, Scope and MEP Requirements

Q: Does Al Sa'fat require solar panels?

Article 504.03 requires on-site solar power generation for Golden and Platinum Sa'fa and for all new buildings: 10% of the building's electrical load (excluding fire-fighting and air-conditioning loads). If space is insufficient, solar must cover 30% of the common-area lighting load with a minimum capacity of 20 kWp.

Al Sa'fatDubai Green Building Systemgreen building rating DubaiSilver Sa'faDubai Municipality sustainability

What Al Sa'fat Is

Al Sa'fat – Dubai Green Building System is Dubai's green building rulebook, issued by Dubai Municipality; the current edition on every consultant's desk is the 2nd edition of January 2023. It sets the sustainability requirements a building must meet on top of the Dubai Building Code, and the DBC in turn references Al Sa'fat for green building requirements.

The document is organised into seven sections: Section 1 (100) Definitions, Section 2 (200) Regulation Application, Section 3 (300) Ecology and Planning, Section 4 (400) Building Vitality, Section 5 (500) Energy Efficiency, Section 6 (600) Resource Effectiveness – Water, and Section 7 (700) Resource Effectiveness – Materials and Waste.

Which Buildings It Applies To

Article 201.01 groups the building typologies the regulations cover: villas (private villas, investment villas and the Arabic House, grouped together as "villas"), residential and commercial buildings (from apartments and labor accommodation to hotels, offices and restaurants), public buildings (banks, schools, malls, government buildings, healthcare, worship houses and more) and industrial buildings (factories, warehouses, workshops).

Two application rules matter in practice. In a mixed-use building, each portion must comply with the regulations for its own typology. And when a building changes use — the document's own example is a residential villa converted to a school — the regulations apply to the new use. Dubai Municipality may also apply special standards for historical and heritage buildings.

The Rating Levels: Sa'fa, Silver, Golden, Platinum

Al Sa'fat classifies compliance into levels. The base level is the Sa'fa itself; above it sit Silver Sa'fa, Golden Sa'fa and Platinum Sa'fa. The levels are cumulative: the Golden Sa'fa requirements table starts from all mandatory and optional requirements of Silver Sa'fa, and Platinum Sa'fa requirements come in addition to the Silver and Golden requirements.

The tiered values show how the levels bite. For the building envelope (Article 501.01), the maximum average U-value for external walls and exposed floors tightens from 0.57 W/m²K at the base Sa'fa to 0.42 W/m²K for Silver Sa'fa, with roof U-values at 0.3 W/m²K; glazing criteria tighten by window-to-wall ratio in the same tables. For preferred parking (Article 301.02), new buildings other than villas with more than 20 parking spaces must designate bays for hybrid, electric and carpool vehicles — 5% for Silver Sa'fa, 7% for Golden Sa'fa and 10% for Platinum Sa'fa.

Two Compliance Routes: Elemental and Performance

For energy (Article 201.03), the standard route is the Elemental Method — all buildings must comply with each of the listed regulations. The alternative Performance Method uses a calculation tool such as dynamic thermal modelling: the proposed building's annual energy consumption must be equal to or lower than that of a reference building that meets all elemental requirements, modelled per ASHRAE 90.1 Appendix G with the minimum envelope and equipment efficiencies already set in Al Sa'fat.

Water compliance (Article 201.04) works the same way: elemental compliance with the fixture requirements of Article 601.01, or a performance comparison of annual water consumption against a reference building. And per Article 201.02, codes and standards referenced in the regulations are part of the requirements — where they differ from international references, Al Sa'fat's own requirements prevail.

What It Means for MEP and Electrical Contractors

Section 500 (Energy Efficiency) is where the MEP scope concentrates. Article 502 covers HVAC equipment efficiency and interior lighting power density. Article 503.03 requires all new buildings to have meters measuring electricity demand and consumption, meeting Dubai Building Code Part G metering requirements; 503.04 adds chilled-water metering for buildings on central or district cooling (per DBC Part H); and 503.05 requires a central control and monitoring system for any new building with a cooling load of 1 MW or a gross floor area of 5,000 m² or more, meeting the DBC's building management system requirements.

On-site renewable energy (Article 504.03) applies to Golden and Platinum Sa'fa and to all new buildings: electrical power must be generated on site using solar panels, at 10% of the building's electrical load (excluding fire-fighting and air-conditioning loads). Where roof space is insufficient, solar must instead cover 30% of the common-area lighting load, with a minimum capacity of 20 kWp.

Around that core: exterior lighting must meet the DBC's exterior light power and pollution controls (Article 303.01); heat rejection equipment above 4.0 kW exhausting externally must sit at least 3 m above ground level (304.02); roof and wall solar reflectance index values are set at 78 for flat or low-sloped roofs and 29 for steep roofs and external walls (304.01); and new buildings must demonstrate at least a 5% reduction in energy demand through innovative measures beyond the listed requirements (505.01), with smart building controls at Platinum level and for all new buildings (505.02).

Electricity metering for all new buildings — per DBC Part G (503.03).
CCMS/BMS mandatory at ≥1 MW cooling load or ≥5,000 m² GFA (503.05).
On-site solar: 10% of electrical load, or 30% of common-area lighting with ≥20 kWp (504.03).
Exterior lighting, SRI envelope values and heat-rejection placement rules in Section 300.

Before You Price or Build

Confirm the target Sa'fa level in the project brief before you price — the difference between base Sa'fa and Silver shows up in envelope specifications, metering scope and renewable capacity. Check the asterisk footnotes if the project is a villa, and budget the performance and commissioning reports that Articles 503.06 and 503.07 require above base level.

When a clause decides equipment selection or cost, get the exact article text. SparkProof answers Al Sa'fat questions with the precise article and table reference — in English or Arabic — so the sustainability requirement is verified before the submittal, not argued after.

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