From 21 to 26 January 2022, ThEEN, represented by Executive Director Jana Liebe and Junior Project Manager Sarah Friese, was part of a 24-strong business delegation from Thuringia organised by LEG's Thüringen International. Other participants were alliance members of the smood® growth core.

With 'Connecting Minds and Creating the Future' through sustainability, mobility and opportunity", the inspiring world exhibition 'Expo 2020 Dubai' is taking place in Dubai until the end of March 2022. smood® is part of the German Pavilion with an interactive exhibit in the 'Future City Lab', which is located in the 'Sustainability District'.

As part of the trip, ThEEN organised two workshops in which Jana Liebe moderated on the topic of "Energy efficiency in residential neighborhoods and technologies for sustainability from Thuringia". The speakers presented the vision and concept of the growth core "smood® - smart neighborhood" and the smoodPRODUCTS developed in it to the participants from Thuringia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The guests showed great interest in Thuringia's smoodTECHNOLOGIES and entered into dialogue with the "smoodies"; follow-up discussions already took place on site.

ThEEN held discussions on possible cooperation with the Emirates Green Building Council, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that promotes and educates about sustainability in the built environment, and the Energy Efficiency & Renewables Office (Reem) of the Ras Al Khaimah Municipality. The government office is driving the implementation of the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Strategy until 2040.

The Thuringian business delegation also visited two sustainable urban development projects in Dubai. In the "Tilal Al Ghaf" project of the real estate and construction company Majid Al Futtaim, quarters with high-quality villas, townhouses and flats as well as open spaces, retail and leisure facilities are being built on an area of more than 3m sqm.

In addition, the participants visited the "Sustainable City" of Diamond Developers, which houses 2,700 inhabitants on 5m sqm and is built according to a three-tiered approach: social, environmental and economic. Sustainability is implemented by equipping the buildings as well as the carports with photovoltaics, growing vegetables in domes for self-sufficiency and anchoring research and education in its own school.