Gundeep Singh hasn’t exactly gone from riches to rags, but he has turned over a green leaf and is determined to help others do the same. Formerly a banking executive who owned a yacht and porsche, the Dubai-based man has switched to a hybrid vehicle and founded The Change Initiative, the first shop in Dubai to offer a massive range of green products.

Each of the sixty products available – everything from organic food to sinks that capture and recycle grey water – goes through a rigorous vetting process to ensure that they are genuinely healthy both for the people who use them and for the environment.

A green warehouse

Mr. Singh took The National’s Vesela Todorova on a tour of the new showroom on Sheikh Zayed Road in Al Barsha. The 5,109 square meter facility is stocked with all of the products that will be available to the public starting on Thursday.

The building itself is a showcase of what strides can be taken to reduce one’s environmental footprint. Not only does it feature sophisticated energy monitoring technology that slashes waste, but 30% of the energy is derived from solar-panels, water is heated the same way, and much of the lighting is solar-powered as well.

Every detail has been taken into consideration, right down to the last drop of non-toxic paint.

Making sustainability fun

For many people, sustainability is such a complex issue that it stunts their ability to act, according to Mr. Singh, who wants to make it easy, fun, and commercially viable for ordinary people to green their lives.

Valerie Hawley is the company’s Chief Sustainability Officer. Before any new products are brought on board, she ensures that the companies behind each product are living up to their promises, which can be monitored by independent organizations such as Ecocert.

The Change Initiative is concerned with supporting businesses that reduce energy and water consumption in the manufacturing process, and that make a concert effort to create products that are easily recycled. And the materials used should be non-toxic, which promotes better public and environmental health.

After living a luxury life, Mr. Singh, whose own home now solar-powered as well, eventually came to the understanding that there is more to life than buying things and worked hard to make substantial changes.

“I suddenly realised none of this made any sense,” Mr Singh told The National. “What really matters is relationships and what you do every day.”

:: The National

image via google maps

More on Green Goods in Dubai:

The Little Fair Trade Shop Shows Masdar its Big Heart 

Dubai’s Eco Maid is Green and Orange

Online and in Dubai, Ekotribe Caters to the Green-Minded

The post Former Yacht & Porsche Owner Opens a Mega Green Store in Dubai appeared first on Green Prophet.

A carbon calculator in Arabic will help Dubai residents track everything from food, travel to energy consumption

The carbon emissions of Gulf nations in the Middle East are notoriously high. The UAE has one of the largest carbon footprints per capita in the world and the average citizen in the Gulf produces between two to ten times more carbon than the average global citizen. As such, it’s great to see the Dubai government launch one of the first ever carbon footprint calculators in Arabic to help residents track their green and not-so-green behaviours.

Whilst the Middle East may only produce a small percentage of the overall global carbon emissions (around 5%), these are rising steadily and the Gulf nations are contributing a disproportionately high chunk of the region’s emissions. According to a report by Carboun, countries such as Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have some of the world’s highest carbon footprints. For example, in Qatar the average person produces 55.4 tonnes of carbon a year which is a world chart topping figure.

In the United Arab Emirates, it has been estimated that 57% of the resource consumption comes from household waste. Consequently, helping residents get a handle on their emissions is a great step and making sure it’s easily accessible to locals who speak Arabic is even better. The carbon calculator (which is also available in English) is not the most complex carbon calculator I’ve seen but it’s definitely a start. It looks at basic things like diet, transport modes, the use of A/C and encourages residents think about the environmental impact of their lifestyles.

Hamdan Khalifa Al Shaer, Director of the Environment Department told the Khaleej Times, “It is about time residents knew how exactly their daily activities affect the environment and address their lifestyles in aspects of food, housing, mobility and consumption of goods. With the help of the website, everyone, especially children, can accordingly put their lifestyle components in front of them and see their footprints.”

So give the carbon calculator a whirl and remember to pass it on to Arabic speakers too.

The Carbon Calculator

For more on the carbon footprints of the region see:

We Measure One Family’s Hajj Carbon Footprint

Carbon Emissions Double In MENA Over 30 Years

UAE To Cut Electricity & Carbon Emissions

The post Dubai Launches Arabic Carbon Calculator appeared first on Green Prophet.

With so much green, inspiring energy in the Middle East North Africa region, we decided to give local green prophets a little pat on the back. At the end of the year, Green Prophet will announce its first list of environmental activists from the Middle East and North Africa region. Top winners will win a small personal cash prize of $200, $100 and $50. All winners will be profiled on Green Prophet, giving credit and credence to their work. Do you know someone who is fighting to save sharks from fin soup, someone fighting for dead seas or lakes, or who is creating new water technologies that could change the water-parched region? If so, let us know about them! Read on for how you can nominate your eco-hero.

Who would you like to see honoured on our list? The region is full of eco-warriors but who do you think has gone the extra green mile this year? They don’t have to be any hugely famous, it could be your green fingered neighbour, but they do have to be from the Middle East and North Africa region.

Here are some ideas of what we are looking for:

Despite huge political upheavals due to the Arab Spring, campaigners have still found time to take action on climate change this year. They have rallied to save salt lake Orumieh in Iran (at great personal risk too) and demanded better public transport in Egypt and Lebanon. They have campaigned to stop nuclear power in Jordan and in Israel, the Save Adullum campaigners have been working hard to stop developers from digging up their neighbourhood for oil shale. Solar power has helped a Turkish village go of the grid and was also embraced by an Abu Dhabi prince who installed photovoltaic at the local crown court.

But, who has impressed you the most this year? Is there a fantastic green campaigner working tirelessly in your city? Or maybe a recycling maverick on your street? Give them the recognition and reward they deserve by nominating them!

You can either leave a comment below this post or via the form, or email me directly at arwa[AT]greenprophet.com with your nominations.

We don’t need to see resumes, but please gives us a few details about the person you’re nominating if they aren’t as well known as they should be. We repeat, fill in the form above, send us an email including the info below, or send your nomination in the comments. And don’t be shy to nominate yourself! We need:

Full name
Country
Field of work or organization
Why you have nominated this person
Contacts (for prize)

Deadline is November 25 for submissions and the top 11  will be announced in mid-December after our editorial staff and outside panel reviews the nominations.

We look forward to receiving your nominations.

:: Image via 350.org/flickr.

The post Nominate Your Green Prophet Eco Hero for 2011 appeared first on Green Prophet.

Hipcycle, a new online marketplace for upcycled products, shows mainstreamers that upcycling can be hip.

Shopping local and sustainable is always best, but when you can’t find locally made, sustainably made, or upcycled products around – sometimes the internet is the best way to go.  Online marketplaces such as Etsy, Mideast ecostore Ekotribe, or the Yiuco Marketplace for strictly handmade upcycled, recycled or reused products are all great, but we have not yet seen an online store devoted strictly to upcycled products.  Until a couple weeks ago, when Hipcycle launched its online upcycled store.  Hipcycle currently features almost 300 stylish, affordable upcycled products (check out some of them in the photos below) with the goal of bringing beautiful, useful and eco-friendly products to mainstream consumers.

We got in touch with Andrew Sell, the Founder of Hipcycle, to learn more about this great project.

How did the idea for starting Hipcycle first come about?

This is my first entrepreneurial venture. I have had the desire to be an entrepreneur for years, but I had just never done it for one reason or another…probably all pretty lame excuses, to be truly candid. I have been involved with various environmental initiatives in the past. I was on the team that organized the first major international environmental conference in China, and I was the President of my Net Impact chapter in business school.

When I came across upcycling and realized that it was not just a bunch of individuals reusing stuff, but rather a nascent, quickly growing industry, I was intrigued. It appealed to both my entrepreneurial and environment interests, and when I realized that there were all these great products out there, and no one easy place to shop for them, the idea for Hipcycle was born.

Are you an avid upcycler yourself? If so, what have been some of your favorite creations?

I don’t yet produce upcycled products for Hipcycle, but I do have plans to do so soon. Around the house, I upcycle as much as I can, trying to keep our waste bins as empty as possible. I recently built a tree house for my kids, and I made an abstract tiled door for that house out of woodscraps and some shelving out of old Ikea furniture parts. Currently, I’ve got a broken wooden lamp sitting on my office floor now, and I’m just waiting for inspiration to strike. I’m thinking about stripping out the electrics for a new lamp of some sort.

How have you gone about finding upcycled products to sell on the site?

In this regard, the internet is a wonderful thing! Online, I have found so many talented, passionate people that make upcycled products. It is a pretty fragmented market, and many of my Product Partners are one-person operations, and Hipcycle represents the first broader exposure of their products. Of course, I also work with some larger companies, but even then, those are usually small enterprises with a half-dozen employees or so. One of the biggest pleasures in growing Hipcycle has been getting to know my Product Partners. They truly inspire to make Hipcycle better every day.

What upcyclers have you been in contact with in the Middle East?

It seems to me that Tel Aviv is one of the global hubs of the upcycling movement. There is some really awesome stuff being created there. For example, Mesila is making housewares and furniture from found materials across the city, and they get extra points for labeling each of their products with the percentage of upcycled materials that are in each design. Junktion is one of the most fun upcyclers I have come across. They use all kinds of found materials, including things like spigots and old appliance parts, in ways that would never have occurred to me.

In your search for upcycled products, have you noticed whether they are more common in certain parts of the world?

There are definitely some areas in the world where upcycling has really taken hold, and thought leaders have emerged that not only take design to new places, but also think about how those designs can be used by consumers on a daily basis. I mentioned Tel Aviv earlier, and Amsterdam and London have strong upcycling presences in Europe. In the U.S., New York City (especially Brooklyn); Boulder, Colorado; and Portland, Oregon are dynamic parts of the growing upcycling industry.

Do you think that purchasing upcycled products will ever be as mainstream as buying entirely new ones?

I would love to see that, but unless the situation with our environment deteriorates to a point where it directly affects everyday life, most consumers will continue to make buying decisions based on what they like need, want, and can afford. The impact that a purchase makes on the environment is not a top priority for many consumers. Therefore, if upcycled products are going to approach a level of acceptance enjoyed by mainstream products, they have to push the same consumer buttons as that mainstream product does. Namely, upcycled products have to be as attractive, durable and otherwise as marketable as mainstream products (if not more so) and at a comparable price point. That’s exactly what we strive to do with Hipcycle’s line of products, which gives our customers the opportunity to meet their needs, and do a small part to help our planet.

:: Hipcycle

Read more about other eco-friendly online marketplaces:
9 Israeli Etsy Shops That Make Online Shopping Greener (and Funner)
Dubai’s Ekotribe to Open Online Mideast Ecostore
Yiuco Marketplace for Handmade Upcycled, Recycled or Reused Products

The post Interview with Andrew Sell, Founder of Hipcycle appeared first on Green Prophet.

Green It

As the ecological movement becomes mainstream, more and more businesses cater to the green lifestyle.  We’ve seen this trend develop in the Middle East, with eco-friendly shops popping up in Beirut, fair trade shops in Masdar City, and even specialty stores focusing on one green product – such as organic clothes for babies.  Earlier this month another green shop – called Green It in Tel Aviv – joined the ranks of those other stores with products that it suggests people use for green urban living.  It describes itself as “the first store in Israel offering the best, newest and most advanced eco friendly products available”, and these products range from design, kitchenware, toys, children’s clothing and office supplies to electronics, literature, pharmaceuticals and textiles, too.

Green It was opened by a couple, Tali and Gil Globus, who were having their own difficulty finding eco-friendly products in Israel and so decided to open a store where green urbanites could find everything they needed.  And at a reasonable price.  The products sold at their shop are not only friendly for the environment, but for your wallet as well.

The ecological picnic set, pictured above, was one of the products marketed by the shop for the Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) holiday.  It includes biodegradable utensils for up to 25 people, biodegradable sandwich and trash bags, and organic wine – all packaged in a designed burlap bag.

And in case your puppy gets jealous, Green It also stocks “Harry Barker” products – a line of eco-friendly doggie items made from hemp, bamboo, recycled plastic and biodegradable bags (for picking up after your dog).  Check out the hemp dog beds and chew toys above.

Green It‘s products are both local and imported, and come in a very wide range.

: Green It

Read more about other green shops across the Middle East::
Beirut’s “A New Earth” Provides Lebanese Urbanites a Place to Shop for Eco-Products
The Little Fair Trade Shop Shows Masdar Its Big Heart
Katanchic Makes Chic Organic Clothes for Green Babies

The post “Green It” Shop Brings Green Urban Living to Tel Aviv appeared first on Green Prophet.

Water trouble has forced residents at Dubai’s man-made Palm Island to wash in the sea and use toilets at shopping malls

The sustainability and usefulness of Dubai’s artificial palm-shaped Island has been widely debated but I think a recent problem at one luxury complex has ironically helped raise awareness of how difficult life can be without water. Water system failure at the seven-building Oceana complex means that Dubai residents have been forced to shower in pools, scrub down in the sea and rely on toilets facilities at nearby shopping centres.

The Middle East is notorious for its water scarcity. As well as topping the charts at the most water insecure region in the world along with sub-Saharan Africa, there have been numerous reports pointing out that the problem is set to get worse when climate change kicks in. Despite these reports, statistics and warnings, it is still hard to actually visualise what life would be like without a steady flow of water.

The ease with which we have access to clean water means that many of us barely stop to think about how much we rely on it. Washing our clothes is a simple case of putting our clothes in the washing machine, pressing a few buttons and off it goes. The same goes for when we flush our toilets. Do you know how much water your washing machine or toilet goes through in every use? Do you know how much water is takes to shower? I know I don’t know.

The only sense I got of how much water my toilet uses was when it broke down and I had to pour lots and lots of water down it to flush it. After a while it was a case of  ‘If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown flush it down’.

So, next time you turn the tap on and water comes out- remember that it may not always be that way especially if you live in the Middle East. What’s more, the hardship that residents of the Oceana complex are currently experiencing in Dubai is only a fraction of the impact that large-scale water shortages would have on agriculture, the economy as well as political stability.

(The floating islands in Dubai have also been shown to have a negative impact on the surrounding marine environment, with reports of stagnating water attracting mosquitoes and algae.)

For more on water issues in the Middle East:

Is The Middle East Taking Climate Change Seriously?

Syria Launches Water Scarcity Park

Desertification in Egypt Is Putting Food Supplies At Risk

The post Trouble In Paradise: Water Failure At Luxury Apartments In Dubai appeared first on Green Prophet.

Nearly 40% of Ekotribe’s customers hail from the neighboring Emirate, Abu Dhabi, but the store’s recent expansion into the ground floor of Dubai’s Mercato mall reveals a slight shift in the glitzy city’s green leanings. There are only scattered venues to satisfy a thirst for eco-living in Dubai, apart from a few restaurants such as Baker & Spice, but Anu Agarwal’s success as owner of one of the Emirate’s first environmentally-friendly stores suggests that demand is growing. And she has what it takes to satiate.

Anu’s life trajectory – so eloquently narrated by The National – is an increasingly frequent “coming-of-climate-awareness-age” story. Formerly a systems analyst for General Motors, she and her husband quit the race to create their own web development firm. Then in 2008, Anu became tapped into the environmental crisis but could not make the necessary changes.

She then attended the Opportunity Green tradeshow in California, where she discovered a world of products that the UAE knew nothing of. That is when she set about to develop her own store. And in just a few short years, she has experienced tremendous success.

In addition to her online store: TheGreenEcoStore.com, Ekotribe has just expanded into Dubai’s Mercato mall, where 400 different eco-friendly products are on offer. She and her husband pumped nearly $30,000 into stock and have a few employees.

Deliveries are available throughout the United Arab Emirates, but Anu says that western expatriates are the main buyers. However, the “educated Arab lady” is becoming increasingly aware. The couple have plans to expand into Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Lebanon, and Qatar and to get supermarkets to get on board.

Originally from New-Delhi, Anu expresses surprise at her own success, and claims that products such as the reusable coffee cup that she presents to her local barista originally drew some surprise. But now, she says, “they get it.”

:: The National

More on living a green lifestyle in the Middle East:

One of a Kind Online Muslim Sex Shop

Project to Reduce Water Consumption in 300 Dubai Mosques

Home Study to Green Your Education

image via Jaime Puebla/The National

The post Online And In Dubai Ekotribe Caters To The Green-Minded appeared first on Green Prophet.

We’ve seen billboards turned into handbags, now they’re being upcycled into placemats.  Chew on that.

The ubiquitous billboards that we routinely see during our everyday lives are made out of PVC, some pretty nasty stuff.  Due to the nature of billboards being hung outdoors and subjected to weather, they are made of out a fairly indestructible material.  Sadly, this also means that they are not biodegradable or even degradable.  Items made out of PVC retain their form for decades and decades, and eventually just granulate (breaking down into smaller pieces of the same substance).

In order to avoid sending these billboards to the landfill for a little while longer, designers in the region have come up with creative uses for them.

Waste Lb in Lebanon makes durable, reusable shopping bags out of old billboard materials.  Abu YoYo, based in Tel Aviv, turns used billboard materials into handbags and home accessories.

Now Naomi Gerstein of Abu YoYo Design has teamed up with some folks at ViaMaris Partners to come up with another billboard waste project: ReMakes placemats.

ReMakes placemats (seen above) are made from reclaimed billboards and movie posters in Israel.  The placemats come in sets of four, with all sets cut from the same billboard in order to create visual cohesion.

For the more elegant eco-homes out there, ReMakes also has a line of black placemats cut from the black portion of the billboard.

To read more about the project visit the ReMakes website or Abe’s Market.

Photos by: Sara Eichler

Read more about sustainable design in Israel::
Israeli Reuse Conference Claims that Big Opportunities Come in Reused Packages
Ten Sustainable Israeli Designers Who Reduce, Reuse & Recycle
Tel Aviv Port’s “Pop-Up Design Store” Features Many Upcycling Designers

The post ReMakes Figures Out What to Do with Billboard Waste appeared first on Green Prophet.

Certain sectors of the United Arab Emirates are savvy about organic agriculture and the environmental benefits of a vegetarian diet. But judging by the ubiquity of mega-malls and towers, not all. Former development journalist and Italian expatriate, Lisa Durante hopes to inspire even more people with her new book. The perfect coffee table book called CleanUAE, it is not a scientific journal but an easy-to- understand source of inspiring material.

Inspired by the American example – at least some of the American example – Durante hopes to steer UAE emirates toward consumer choices that are based on business merits.

Managing Group Editor for GVP Media, the book’s publishers, Durante claimed that researched posed among the project’s greatest challenges. In addition to providing tips on how to reduce waste and overall carbon footprint, CleanUAE also lists various businesses.

Businesses are essentially rated for their sustainability, but not all businesses were willing to participate. Durante called the end product “a coalition of the living.”

Creating greater transparency, in her view, is one essential ingredient that will lead to a cleaner UAE.

To be be fair, Abu Dhabi has launched numerous initiatives to reduce its energy and water use, and to upscale its overall environmental image in order to become competitive as a cosmopolitan city.

In Durante’s view, unlike the US which is crippled by a deficit in the trillions, the UAE has the requisite resources to clean up its act. All it needs is a certain amount of political awareness and will.

While the original effort may be incomplete given some lack of cooperation, it is possible that if the book gains wide readership, consumers will begin to demand disclosure from businesses. When that transpires, corporations, farms, manufacturers, restaurants – everyone – will be pressured to demonstrate a strong sustainability follow-through.

In the end, Durante told The National, the UAE may even be able to teach the other half of the USA a thing or two about sustainable living.

:: story and image via The National

More green living news from the Middle East:

Egypt’s Social Change Begins With Cleaning The Streets

Eco-Hijabs On The Rise: What Eco-Bloggers Have To Contribute

5 Green Valentine Ideas For Your Eco-Girlfriend

The post Lisa Durante: UAE Could Teach The USA About Sustainability appeared first on Green Prophet.

Moving from a culture of “me” to a culture of “we”.

Rachel Botsman, a researcher and social innovator, is hooked on the idea of what she calls “collaborative consumption” – a phenomenon that is gaining force in the 21st century.  She recently gave a TED talk about the concept (see clip above) and said that what is essentially happening is that “technology is enabling trust between strangers.  We now live in a global village, where we can mimic the ties that used to happen face to face but on a scale and in ways that have never been possible before.  So what’s actually happening is that social networks and real-time technologies are taking us back – we’re bartering, sharing, swapping, trading – but they’re being reinvented into dynamic and appealing forms.”

Collaborative consumption has started to emerge in the Middle East over recent years, with the appearance of online services such as carpooling in Cairo, or car sharing in Tel Aviv.

The internet is removing the need for the “middle man” and creating a peer-to-peer revolution where online platforms create the ability to collaborate easily and seamlessly.  This enables sharing to happen at “phenomenal rates”.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=br7LAsAOcpM&feature=related[/youtube]

According to Botsman, collaborative consumption is happening because of four key reasons:

• A renewed belief in the importance of community
• A torrent of peer-to-peer social networks and real-time technologies
• Pressing unresolved environmental concerns
• A global recession that has fundamentally shocked consumer behaviors

As a result of collaborative consumption, what Botsman and her collaborators refer to as “redistribution markets” are now emerging.  Instead of simply throwing used items out, as they were before, items are now being redistributed from where they are no longer needed to where they are.  “Redistribution” is the 5th “R” after Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Repair, since it also prolongs the lifecycle of a product (thereby reducing waste).

She also points to the growth in “product service systems”, where you pay for the benefit of using a product without actually owning it.  One widespread example of this system is a car sharing service, such as Car2Go in Tel Aviv, which allows multiple members of the service to use the cars frequently as needed without actually owning the car.

“These systems are coming together allowing people to share resources without sacrificing their lifestyles or their cherished personal freedoms.  I’m not asking people to share nicely in the sandpit,” Botsman said.

“I believe we’re actually in a period where we’re waking up from this humongous hangover of emptiness and waste, and we’re taking a leap to create a more sustainable system built to serve our innate needs for community and individual identity.  I believe it will be referred to as a revolution…. I’m on a mission to making sharing cool.”

: TED Talks

Read more about collaborative consumption already happening in the Middle East::
Get a Ride and Reduce Carbon Emissions with Egypt Carpoolers
Car2Go Brings Car Sharing to Tel Aviv
Reuse It or Lose It: Logging On to Online Re(use)sources

The post Rachel Botsman Makes the Case for Collaborative Consumption appeared first on Green Prophet.