• Home
• About Estidama
• The Philosophy of Estidama

The Philosophy of Estidama

Estidama is first and foremost, an aspiration – the desire to achieve a sustainable way of living. It is not a program, or a rating system, but an overarching way of viewing all aspects of our life based on its 4 pillars, environmental, economic, social, and culture, to ensure that its sustainable goals and aspirations are well rounded. We envision that Estidama, when fully expressed across our society, will touch multiple facets of our daily life – the curriculum in our children’s schools, the way the sovereign wealth fund makes investment decisions, the way infrastructure is planned, calculated and constructed, the health of our land and marine ecosystems, and sustainable sourcing of food and water.

However, in the most immediate term, Estidama is being focused on our rapidly changing built environment. It is in this area that the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council (UPC) is making significant strides to influence each and every project that is under design, development or construction within the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Achieving Estidama in our region will take time, commitment and leadership. It will also require a variety of tools, combined with new capacity within our construction industry. Toward that end, UPC is working concurrently on developing four essential tools to help advance the reality of Estidama:

• Regulatory and Code Alignment
• The Pearls Design System
• Pilot Projects and Stakeholder Engagement
• Integrated Design Process Education and Training