Published by Jessica Weisman-Pitts
Posted on December 16, 2021
3 min readLast updated: January 28, 2026
The 2021 GCC construction report by Deloitte emphasizes sustainability and ESG goals as key trends, highlighting the industry's shift towards digital transformation and sustainable project funding.
The Construction industry, like many other industries, was not immune to the pandemic and had been challenged to adapt to new ways of working and thinking. Deloitte’s 11th edition of the GCC Powers of Construction report looks at the changes required in the industry to ensure that an appropriate pivot is made to create a sustainable industry that is ready to build sustainable capital assets for the region.
Sustainability is at the core of this year’s publication, with a growing focus on capital projects having sustainable goals and objectives incorporated into the initial design and whole life cost thinking, which is also the change needed in the industry to address some of the casual factors experienced in the industry over the last decade. As such, this change to create a supportive Construction ecosystem across all stages of the project lifecycle is becoming a clear priority for the contractors, owners, investors and funders alike.
As in previous editions, the Deloitte report reviews the current market conditions and current trends based on data and opinions gathered from key industry leaders, as well as leveraging Deloitte expertise, and includes a series of articles that reflect how the industry as a whole is moving forward to drive sustainable economic growth.
“As we emerge from lockdowns and other restrictions, we are all grappling with adopting new emerging ways of doing business where sustainability finds itself at the forefront of several government agendas, and new ESG goals and guidelines are being implemented and legislated at record speed. This change that has been created through questioning the way we work and where we work, coupled with sustainability goals, brings about a key opportunity for the industry to pivot to create a new way of designing and prioritizing projects through a whole life cost lens. said Cynthia Corby, Partner and Regional Construction Industry Leader, Deloitte Middle East. “For many governments, owners, lenders and institutional investors the impetus is clear– in the not too distant future, only those projects with a sustainability objective incorporated in the business plan will be fundable as investors seek out those opportunities that align with their own ESG goals and are economically sustainable.”
The Deloitte report explores several key topics including the GCC projects market outlook, the Middle East Real Estate market overview, and sustainability within the construction sector. Other focal areas of the report include COVID-19-related claims within the Middle East construction industry, tax policy landscape, restructuring, insolvency and exit options, as well as construction tech and building the cities of the future while creating digital twins needed for more intelligent asset management in the future.
“We recognize that there are several challenges and opportunities as we all navigate through the coming years and the world resets to deliver the new demands for a new tomorrow. Add in sustainability, net zero policies, ESG goals to an already turbulent industry which is still dealing with the ongoing challenges of the pandemic, and it is clear that those owners and contractors who collaborate to design and build assets with a whole life cost view and adopt digital transformation and innovation will fare better in delivering economically and environmentally sustainable assets than their counterparts who try to stick to existing ways of doing business,” concludes Corby.
To view the whole report, click here.
The main topic is the 2021 GCC construction industry's focus on sustainability and adapting to new trends as highlighted in Deloitte's report.
Key trends include sustainability, ESG goals, digital transformation, and the impact of COVID-19 on the industry.
Sustainability is becoming a priority, with projects needing to align with ESG goals to secure funding and support future growth.
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