For oil-rich, environmentally vigilant Gulf states, Astro isn’t just another startup story. It is a blueprint for accelerating an energy transition that is now existential, not optional.
Christ’s thorn jujube (Ziziphus spina-christi) also known as the sidr tree is a real, identifiable tree native to the Middle East, and it appears—directly or indirectly—in Islam, Judaism, and later Christian tradition. The connections between the three faiths are not theological agreements but overlapping uses, names, and symbolic associations rooted in the same landscape.
For oil-rich, environmentally vigilant Gulf states, Astro isn’t just another startup story. It is a blueprint for accelerating an energy transition that is now existential, not optional.
Christ’s thorn jujube (Ziziphus spina-christi) also known as the sidr tree is a real, identifiable tree native to the Middle East, and it appears—directly or indirectly—in Islam, Judaism, and later Christian tradition. The connections between the three faiths are not theological agreements but overlapping uses, names, and symbolic associations rooted in the same landscape.
For oil-rich, environmentally vigilant Gulf states, Astro isn’t just another startup story. It is a blueprint for accelerating an energy transition that is now existential, not optional.
Christ’s thorn jujube (Ziziphus spina-christi) also known as the sidr tree is a real, identifiable tree native to the Middle East, and it appears—directly or indirectly—in Islam, Judaism, and later Christian tradition. The connections between the three faiths are not theological agreements but overlapping uses, names, and symbolic associations rooted in the same landscape.
For oil-rich, environmentally vigilant Gulf states, Astro isn’t just another startup story. It is a blueprint for accelerating an energy transition that is now existential, not optional.
Christ’s thorn jujube (Ziziphus spina-christi) also known as the sidr tree is a real, identifiable tree native to the Middle East, and it appears—directly or indirectly—in Islam, Judaism, and later Christian tradition. The connections between the three faiths are not theological agreements but overlapping uses, names, and symbolic associations rooted in the same landscape.
For oil-rich, environmentally vigilant Gulf states, Astro isn’t just another startup story. It is a blueprint for accelerating an energy transition that is now existential, not optional.
Christ’s thorn jujube (Ziziphus spina-christi) also known as the sidr tree is a real, identifiable tree native to the Middle East, and it appears—directly or indirectly—in Islam, Judaism, and later Christian tradition. The connections between the three faiths are not theological agreements but overlapping uses, names, and symbolic associations rooted in the same landscape.
For oil-rich, environmentally vigilant Gulf states, Astro isn’t just another startup story. It is a blueprint for accelerating an energy transition that is now existential, not optional.
Christ’s thorn jujube (Ziziphus spina-christi) also known as the sidr tree is a real, identifiable tree native to the Middle East, and it appears—directly or indirectly—in Islam, Judaism, and later Christian tradition. The connections between the three faiths are not theological agreements but overlapping uses, names, and symbolic associations rooted in the same landscape.
For oil-rich, environmentally vigilant Gulf states, Astro isn’t just another startup story. It is a blueprint for accelerating an energy transition that is now existential, not optional.
Christ’s thorn jujube (Ziziphus spina-christi) also known as the sidr tree is a real, identifiable tree native to the Middle East, and it appears—directly or indirectly—in Islam, Judaism, and later Christian tradition. The connections between the three faiths are not theological agreements but overlapping uses, names, and symbolic associations rooted in the same landscape.
For oil-rich, environmentally vigilant Gulf states, Astro isn’t just another startup story. It is a blueprint for accelerating an energy transition that is now existential, not optional.
Christ’s thorn jujube (Ziziphus spina-christi) also known as the sidr tree is a real, identifiable tree native to the Middle East, and it appears—directly or indirectly—in Islam, Judaism, and later Christian tradition. The connections between the three faiths are not theological agreements but overlapping uses, names, and symbolic associations rooted in the same landscape.
In5, part of TECOM Group, presents the region’s largest 3D printed exhibition stand, The North Star at Dubai Design Week, which opened doors at Dubai Design District on Nov. 7 and which closed on Nov 12.
Nyxo’s 3D printed pavilion
NYXO designed and built The North Star from recycled polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG) to showcase how recycling can be incorporated into real-world architecture.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, stands in front of the the first world functional 3D printed offices during the official opening in Dubai May 23, 2016. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah
Spanning over 1,000 square feet The North Star represents pressing environmental challenges say its designers. An infinite loop generating four spaces and organising surfaces make up the pavilion, with the surfaces joining and folding together to create pockets that are continuously connected to signify in5’s legacy as start-up incubator.
The Tecom portfolio consists of 10 business districts catering to six vital knowledge-based economic sectors, including design, education, manufacturing, media, science, and technology. It provides a varied and tailor-made leasing portfolio – which includes offices, co-working spaces, warehouses, and land – to over 10,800 customers and more than 105,000 professionals.
Italian Designers Mirko and Michele Daneluzzo are also the founders of NYXO Visionary Design ( @nyxo_studio ), an architecture and product design studio based in Dubai. Via Nyxo Instagram.
The design house Nyxo has some other enchanting products, like Desert, a table 3D-printed to resemble the Emirati desert: “Desert is a table whose design is inspired by the fossil dunes of the Emirati desert. Printed with Foaming PLA, a lightweight, low-density material Desert is a sculptural coffee table whose organic curves are inspired by nature, in particular by the spontaneous fossil formations. Just as the layering of the sand over time created the fossils, so the layering of the 3d printing creates this table.”
Desert, a 3D printed table reminiscent of fossils in the Emirati desert
“The material has a porosity that graciously simulates the roughness of desert sand,” say the Italian designers at Nyxo, based in Dubai.
We also love Thigmo, a 3D designed porcelain cup set, “characterized by a relief surface that is inspired by the generative processes that we find in nature.”
Thigmo, 3D printed ceramic cup moldThigmo, 3D printed ceramic cup form
“The intricate veining surface is the result of a digital simulation of the behavior of growth of mycelium, the interweaving of filaments which constitutes the vegetative apparatus of fungi. The survey has a unique appearance and offers a tactile experience very stimulating, as well as allowing you to manipulate the cup in serenity even in the presence of a good hot coffee.”
Karin Kloosterman is an award-winning journalist, innovation strategist, and founder of Green Prophet, one of the Middle East’s pioneering sustainability platforms. She has ranked in the Top 10 of Verizon innovation competitions, participated in NASA-linked challenges, and spoken worldwide on climate, food security, and future resilience.
With an IoT technology patent, features in Canada’s National Post, and leadership inside teams building next-generation agricultural and planetary systems — including Mars-farming concepts — Karin operates at the intersection of storytelling, science, and systems change.
She doesn’t report on the future – she helps design it.
Reach out directly to [email protected]
For oil-rich, environmentally vigilant Gulf states, Astro isn’t just another startup story. It is a blueprint for accelerating an energy transition that is now existential, not optional.
Runners at the Dubai Marathon will have a rare chance to enter the Guinness World Records archive this year, as the global record-keeping authority partners with the marathon to mark the race’s 25th anniversary.
Flying centuries-old trees across continents via specialized cargo burns enormous fossil fuels. Replanting them in a desert climate—no matter how advanced the irrigation or “heritage preservation techniques”—places immense stress on organisms that evolved for Mediterranean seasons, soils, and rainfall patterns. And we've seen that the UAE is not capable of taking care of trees so survival rates are uncertain.
Emirates NBD has partnered with Dubai-founded workspace platform Letswork—co-created in 2019 by Omar Al Mheiri and Hamza Khan—to give employees flexible, sustainable access to book coworking hubs, meeting rooms, and private offices across more than 100 locations in Dubai, over 25 sites in Abu Dhabi and the Northern Emirates, and international venues, reducing commute time, streamlining workshop planning, and supporting the bank’s wider sustainability and innovation commitments.
Masdar is the the UAE’s flagship renewable energy company. Compare it to Neom in Saudi Arabia. Masdar has become one of the world’s most active clean energy investors, with projects in more than 40 countries across six continents. Established in 2006 and jointly owned by ADNOC, Mubadala, and TAQA, Masdar operates and develops solar, wind, and green hydrogen projects with a current portfolio exceeding 50 gigawatts of capacity. Masdar also buys companies, and paid $50 million for this US business Terra-Gen last year.
Qatar remains a master of doublethink—burning gas by the megaton while selling “sustainability” to a world desperate for clean air. Wake up from your slumber people.
A 2024 survey by Deloitte found that 76% of talent leaders now consider long-term retention and workforce contribution among their most important hiring success metrics—far surpassing time-to-fill or cost-per-hire. As the expectations for new hires deepen, companies must also confront the inherent challenges in redefining and accurately measuring hiring quality.
While “green jobs” aren’t always labeled as such, many of the fastest-growing roles are directly enabling the energy transition, climate resilience, and lower-carbon systems:
Number one on their list is Artificial Intelligence engineers. But what does that mean? Vibe coding Claude?
The pirates often stage their heists out of Somalia, a lawless country, with a weak central government that is grappling with a violent Islamist insurgency. Using speedboats that swarm the targets, the machine-gun-toting pirates take control of merchant ships and then hold the vessels, crew and cargo for ransom.
Few fashion accessories carry the environmental burden of sunglasses. Most frames are constructed from petroleum-based plastics and acrylic polymers that linger in landfills for centuries, shedding microplastics into soil and waterways long after they've been discarded. Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López, president of the Spanish eyewear brand Hawkers, saw this problem differently than most industry executives.
Other announcements made at the conference include the Timna Renewable Energy Park, which will be a center for R&D, and the AORA Solar Thermal Module at Kibbutz Samar, the world's first commercial hybrid solar gas-turbine power plant that is already nearing completion. Solel Solar Systems announced it was beginning construction of a 50 MW solar field in Lebrija, Spain, and Brightsource Energy made a pre-conference announcement that it had inked the world's largest solar deal to date with Southern California Edison (SCE).
