With its climate-defying indoor ski slopes and outdoor golf courses, the United Arab Emirates might seem the least likely place to tout environmentally sensitive design. Last year, the World Wildlife Fund ranked the Emirates first among the world’s 71 most populous nations in consumption: roughly 30 acres of land and water are needed to sustain the needs of each citizen per year, compared to the average of just 4.5 acres in other nations. The U.A.E. also gets poor marks for its high levels of carbon emissions and its reliance on fossil fuels, half which are used to power, light, and air-condition buildings, according to Hilson Moran, a global engineering consulting firm that recently studied the Emirates.

Gensler’s Tameer Towers, a mixed-use complex in Abu Dhabi, aims to be among the new crop of green buildings constructed in the United Arab Emirates.