The Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council (UPC), the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD), Abu Dhabi Municipality and Masdar are part of an initiative to develop sustainable buildings in the emirate - the initiative is called Estidama. Estidama, provides guidelines and regulations for green design, operation and maintenance of various buildings within the emirate of Abu Dhabi. In the first phase of Estimada the guidelines identified 10 sustainability elements that need to be addressed. These include: Water; Energy Use; Indoor environmental quality; Ecology; Management; Transport; Pollution; Materials; Waste management; and Land use.

Europe is well aware of it's concrete jungle and so it ensures that it's residences have the pleasures of beaches and grass, even if it's temporary. European countries such as Paris and Budapest have set up temporary beaches for their residents to enjoy the summer sun with some sand. Now, however a new project is bringing temporary grass to various countries. HUNK design, based on Rotterdam with assistance from IDEddy is offering cities, The Flying Grass Carpet. The Flying Grass Carpet is a temporary and movable greenery available in various colours and in various artificial and natural grasses. The grass carpet comes in adjustable size, measuring at most 58 by 32 meters (190 to 150 feet).The goal of The Flying Grass Carpet is to give Europeans a place to enjoy themselves in simple delights such as having a picnic or playing Frisbee with kids.  

Scotland has developed it's first eco-town at Cardenden - a blueprint for future development of sustainable communities. The development proposes 5,000 wooden eco-homes, of which 1,000 would be affordable housing, that will be built over the next 20 years.