Corporate social responsibility benefits are often understated outside of the business world.

The benefits of CSR can be achieved with many different types of investments-whether that’s time or money.

We’ll explore benefits such as promoting sustainable development, driving innovation, and improving company reputation.

The benefits of corporate social responsibility are vast, and many benefits are understated outside of the business world. But there is promise as new career opportunities are popping up as corporate social responsibility jobs.

Benefits include the promotion of sustainable development around the world, driving innovation through changing perspectives on diverse issues, and improving company reputation with customers by being a good global citizen.

What is Corporate Social Responsibility?

CSR is defined as “a philosophy or policy that integrates considerations for both shareholders and society at large.” This means considering not only what benefits your company but also how it impacts those who are less fortunate than you.

The benefits to an individual business range from increased customer loyalty to reducing risk factors for consumers in emerging markets. There are also benefits to society as a whole, many of which are not even considered benefits by companies.

For example, sustainable development is one of the benefits that is often understated in the business world.

CSR goes beyond just considering what benefits your company-it benefits everyone involved. Sustainable development drives innovation through changing perspectives on diverse issues within the corporate sphere, which in turn benefits society as a whole.

Importance of Corporate Social Responsibility

More than nine out of ten individuals on the planet believe that businesses would do well to act responsibly if there were any concerns with the environment. When buying a product, 83% of customers are willing to choose ethical goods to prevent environmental damage caused by its production.

CSR is about more than social capital or reputation management. It’s also about corporate social responsibility or CSR.

This concept has roots in the idea that businesses should be held to higher standards of conduct and ethics if they want to pursue human rights’ investors like myself would look for additional information on their website – not just financial performance rankings.

These are the key business advantages that will make your company more competitive.

This does not have to comply with the law, but you must pay close attention to environmental and social concerns that are affecting your company for it to improve its financial results. You may call out “Global CSR” if your organization is interested in Global CSR.

How corporate social responsibility benefits the community?

Many benefits exist and the benefits of CSR are often hard to measure. However, we can easily see the benefits of socially responsible workplaces and sustainable communities.

Challenges

It’s difficult to determine how corporate social responsibility benefits society as there is no widespread agreement on which results will be considered as such.

There is also a radical difference between organizations that only conduct charitable work and those that address both environmental and social issues.

Benefits

When employees believe their company holds moral standards, they experience lower stress levels and higher productivity than those who do not feel the same way about their company’s values.

This inevitably leads towards sustaining competitive advantages and an improved perception from customers who reflect this value for sustainable goods or services in purchasing decisions, which contributes to the growth of market share.

What are the 4 main benefits of social responsibility?

The benefits of CSR also go beyond just businesses and their employees. Community organizations, social enterprises, and local economies all feel the positive impacts of CSR.

Community benefits

One key benefit is that CSR can help improve the social fabric of communities. Social enterprises bridge the gap between businesses and the nonprofit sector by providing benefits to society at large, while meeting the needs of individual communities.

Employee benefits

When employees are included in CSR activities, their experience working for a company that values CSR results in higher levels of employee satisfaction.

Combined with an increase in motivation and empowerment, this leads to more engaged workers who are likely to produce higher quality work.

Economic benefits

A company that benefits the local community is at an advantage when it comes to recruiting, motivating, and retaining employees in that area. Additionally, CSR benefits may lead to opportunities for growth with suppliers and other organizations in the area.

Environmental benefits

The benefits of corporate social responsibility are also realized by the environment.

CSR helps organizations become more environmentally aware and encourages them to take actions that reduce their environmental impact. Many companies have adopted green policies as a result of their CSR initiatives, and some businesses have even gone so far as to create separate divisions that focus exclusively on environmental sustainability.

Final Thoughts

Thus, it is evident that the benefits of CSR are vast and far-reaching. When companies invest in CSR, they not only improve their bottom line, but also contribute to the health and sustainability of their employees, local communities, and the environment.

We can all benefit from corporate social responsibility initiatives – let’s work together to make it happen.

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At a press event in Brussels recently, KKL-JNF World Chairman Danny Atar said that his organization will manage a forest rehabilitation project that will employ thousands of Syrian refugees currently living in Europe.

Atar explained that he came to Belgium following the March terror attacks in Brussels hoping to “to strengthen the spirit” of the local Jewish community. After meeting with Belgian youth groups and local community leaders, he was eager to harness their strong connection to their faith and to Israel in a way that might inspire intelligent solutions for the challenges Europe faces from fundamental extremism.

He revealed, in response to a direct request from an unnamed “major refugee-absorbing country”, KKL-JNF has agreed to provide professional management services on a new forest rehab project near one of Europe’s capital cities.

Scientists have proven that healthy forests can be a carbon sink for greenhouse gases. Atar hinted that additional scope may be added to their remit.

“KKL- JNF has a proven track record of sustainable development that integrates environmental improvement with improving the quality of life of the population in general and immigrant populations and refugees in particular,’’ said Atar, according to the European Jewish Express.

The chairman emphasized that ‘’this project and others like it, are the Israeli answer to the BDS (Boycott-Divestment-Sanction) movement and the delegitimization of Israel. Those who promote hate and strife will continue to demonstrate against Israel and, subsequently, against all Western European values. However, we – KKL-JNF and the State of Israel – will continue creating more solutions that will benefit both – the refugees who escaped terror in their own countries and their hosts, the European peoples “.

The KKL-JNF was founded in 1901 to purchase and develop land in Ottoman Palestine for Jewish settlement. Within a century, it owned approximately 13% of Israel’s total land. Now the largest “green” organization in the world, it has planted over 240 million trees in Israel, built 180 dams and reservoirs, established more than 1,000 public parks, and developed 1,000 square kilometers of  land.

Atar concluded his remarks by saying the organization is currently examining additional projects with a refugee-focus, and will explore other sustainable projects aimed at creating employment in other countries.

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Sderot’s dusty streets and woeful aspect come naturally after enduring years of rocket attacks from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. In this Western Negev town in Israel, all bus stops are small bomb shelters. A traffic roundabout represents the town center, with a pizzeria, a stationary store, and some tired-looking clothing shops around it.

The young, active population has long ago left, seeking better employment opportunities and quality of life elsewhere. But the periphery town has received an boost of young energy and willpower from a new student village constructed by the students themselves, out of recycled shipping containers.

Five to six million shipping containers are on the seas at any given moment. What can be done with them after they’re no longer considered seaworthy? Ayalim, Israel’s largest youth organization, has an answer: construct sustainable housing out of them, and rent them out cheaply to students in development towns. The Sderot project is one of 12 such student villages constructed in periphery areas through Ayalim. We wrote about one built in Lod, central Israel.

The Sderot student village project launched last June has completed 36 units, each housing two students. Ultimately, the village will boast of 150 apartments constructed of shipping containers stacked three stories high, each two sharing a bomb shelter. 1000 students and pre-army volunteers learned construction skills as they worked. 300 of them will remain in the village to study at the nearby Sapir Academic College. In exchange for the subsidized rent, the students commit to 500 annual hours of social work in the Sderot community.

The hope is that the youngsters will stay in Sderot after their studies, eventually integrating into the larger community and infusing it with a significant socio-economic boost.

Ayalim representative Effie Rubin, also one of the organization’s founders, said:

“If we want to change the reality towards better education and job opportunities, we need to bring young people to the periphery towns.There’s no reason why the majority of  Israelis should squeeze into Tel Aviv. People can live in nice houses like these for NIS600 a month.

“Our hope is that the students have an amazing experience and decide to stay. We did a survey and discovered that students’ greatest obstacle to studying in the Negev and other periphery areas is lack of affordable housing. There are no decent cheap apartments in the Negev or the Galilee. The second discovery was that they tend to stay if they’re given a continuous sense of community; a feeling of being part of a group.”

Cargotecture is good for students and the planet

According to an Ayalim survey conducted last year, the villages so far are providing students satisfaction on both counts.

Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Energy and Water Minster Silvan Shalom made an appearance at the official inauguration of the Sderot village last week. Both spoke of socio-economic reform in the hands of the coming generation.

The most important attraction for the youngsters is the opportunity to take part in real social activism, but the green aspect also draws them. Only a minimum of concrete is used in the construction, and a layer of insulation is placed between the steel and the drywall. Artificial grass covers the public areas, as it would be unrealistic to lay living grass down in the thirsty climate of the Western Negev. Trees planted in recycled, painted barrels dot the paths. As is customary in Israel, solar heaters will be going up on the rooftops to make sure there’s hot water when needed.

“A grassroots organization like Ayalim can’t deal with thousands of these units,” says Rubin. “Our aim is to be a model, to show Israel and the world that fast, cheap, and good-quality housing can be made out of shipping containers and good will.”

Read more on shipping container architecture:

Shipping Container Cargotecture Office

Affordable Container Housing Hits the Negev

Dubai’s Sustainable City Launches

Photographs by Miriam Kresh.

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Saudi Arabia has announced that the construction industry has five years to “green” up their business. Amid a massive construction boom, the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME) has decreed that all companies must reduce their air, water and noise pollution in keeping with regulations approved in 2008.

While skeptics claim that the Kingdom lacks the regulatory muscle to ensure that them, Saudi Arabia has introduced sweeping measures to bring the construction industry up to speed with international standards, The Guardian reports.

This move is particularly timely given the numerous construction projects underway, including the $93 billion King Abdullah Economic City. Faisal Alfadl, Secretary-general of the Saudi Green Building Forum (SGBF) told the paper that all of the projects under this umbrella will be green.

“As Saudi Arabia grapples with constant growth, government and industry support is needed to ensure building developments adhere to USGBC Leed certifications and other global rating systems. We need national policies to ensure companies store and sort their construction waste responsibly,” says Alfadl.

“To complete their projects, all contractors, construction companies and suppliers must adhere to these global green standards.”

SGBP has offered to help PME meet its goals within the next five years.

Related: Saudi’s 1km high Kingdom Tower will require 500,000 cubic meters of concrete

Part of their plan to reduce energy use by up to 80 percent and water use by up to 40 percent, Saudi is renovating more 90,000 mosques throughout the Kingdom, Alfadl told the Guardian.

“We welcome the PME’s move and we have the right support in place.”

We also welcome Saudi Arabia’s efforts to improve how they treat construction workers and natural resources, along with moves to increase renewable energy use, but the Kingdom has a long way to go. For starters, they have to resist splashy projects such as the Kingdom Tower in Jeddah.

Expected to reach one kilometer into the sky, the tower will require – among other materials – 500,000 cubic meters of concrete to supersede the Burj Khalifa in Dubai as the world’s tallest building.

The new regulations could definitely improve Saudi’s overall environmental impact, but a massive cultural change will be required for any meaningful nationwide paradigm shift.

:: The Guardian

Image of Saudi Arabia Mosque | Shutterstock

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Masdar City is an experimental clean tech and research hub located 17 kilometers outside of Abu Dhabi. One day, it is expected that up to 40,000 people will call the car-free, pedestrian friendly, energy-efficient city home. Plus, since it is a special economic free zone, foreign companies and startups can take advantage of 100 percent  ownership of their firms, zero import tariffs and taxes, and zero currency restrictions.

But Abu Dhabi has already forked over billions of dollars to realize Masdar’s current achievements, which include doubling the size of the Masdar Institute of Technology (MIST), which has already produced 40 patent-application disclosures and graduated top tier students according to Wired, attracting over 100 companies to its new incubator building, a new headquarters for IRENA, and the recent completion of Siemens’ groundbreaking LEED-Platinum headquarters.

Such an inspired green development, Masdar has already had ripple effects across the Gulf. Ostensibly realizing that solar and other renewables make economic sense, both Saudi Arabia and Qatar are pursuing ambitious plans to wean their own population off oil in order to ensure long term export earnings.

But what about Tunisia, or Algeria, or Jordan? Given that they have less disposable income than Abu Dhabi, how can these countries possibly replicate the Masdar model? How can they be encouraged to pursue green development?

“With the financial crisis and the realization that if you’re going to be a model for sustainable development, you have to recognize not only environmental sustainability but social and economic as well,” said Mallows. “With that came the realization that you build cities not within the realm of governments that have a lot of money to invest in R&D, but you build it with the private sector… that build pieces of cities or parts of cities for profit.”

“We re-calibrated the development strategy for Masdar City to allow specifically third party investors and developers to participate in Masdar City’s development on long term land leases and all we do is we say here are development regulations based on Abu Dhabi 2030 and Estidama regulations and sustainability criteria that if you build in Masdar City we expect you will conform to.”

In other words, Mallows notes, a third party developer on a long term land lease could build a sustainable project anywhere in the world, not just in Masdar City, without massive financing from government. They can make a profit, but building sustainably depends on the will to do so.

Which means that municipalities in other cities could mandate that all future builds or retrofits fit a certain standard – in the same way that Abu Dhabi has mandated that all new residential projects should earn at least one pearl under Estidama guidelines, while government buildings are expected to achieve at least two.

In Masdar City, all future builds are expected to achieve at least three pearls under Estidama, according to Chris Wan, who spoke during a breakout session in Abu Dhabi about the economics of sustainability and the process that lead to the Siemens building’s success.

“We’ve taken a look at Masdar City and said OK, what are the building blocks of a city,” says Mallows. “And the building blocks of a city are actually not huge districts or downtown cores or things the size of Masdar City, they are in fact neighborhoods.”

“But neighborhoods are not necessarily just residential, they are also working neighborhoods, live-work neighborhoods, mixed-use neighborhoods, R&D neighborhoods – how do you do this?”

“So now we’ve re-organized Masdar City into nine neighborhoods – starting around Masdar Institute as an R&D neighborhood … where in fact there are different kinds of facilities and then straightforward residential neighborhoods, shops, amenities – but, and here’s a big but, they are all linked by a network of mobility and that’s the key and that’s replicable.”

Mallows says that a sustainable city must have public transportation and it must be pedestrian-friendly. This not only reduces the number of cars on the roads, but by extension energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. It also provides a more pleasant social atmosphere – especially if the neighborhoods are designed for an optimum microclimate that takes advantage of passive design and natural cooling.

The post Can there be more Masdar eco-cities in the Middle East? appeared first on Green Prophet.

As part of a long-term strategy to advance alternative energy, Masdar had sought investment opportunities in the Egyptian windfarm industry, and in February 2010, they finalized plans to build a 200-megawatt  wind farm on the Red Sea coastline. The Abu Dhabi-based company specializes in renewable energy, clean technology, and sustainable development.

Egypt’s renewables target was announced in 2008 with a goal of sourcing 20% of its electricity from fossil-fuel alternatives by 2020. That includes a 12% target for wind energy, equivalent to 7.2 gigawatts.  Egypt has exceptional potential for wind and solar energy generation due to strong and consistent wind patterns, particularly on the coast of the Red Sea.

Egypt is seeking to attract $110 billion in investments in its energy sector by 2027. The country has operating wind farms with an installed capacity of 430 megawatts at Zafarana and Hurghada on its Red Sea coastline, one of the windiest sites in the Middle East.

Regional instability and economic woes put the 2010 framework between Masdar and the Egyptian New And Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) on ice.  Now Al Arabiya Satellite Channel has reported that Masdar is again seeking to invest in the project with an estimated $600 million. The project will be the first collaborative venture between Egypt and the UAE in the field of renewable energy.

“The company is focusing currently on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region for investments in solar and wind energy,” Masdar said in a press release. Sultan Al Jaber, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Masdar, had earlier told Gulf News that the company is seeking investments everywhere in the world.

Sit back and see what the wind blows in.

 Image of offshore wind farm from Shutterstock

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The Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects (DAEP) plans to utilize recycling programs (also during construction), renewable energy, and locally sourced building materials throughout the construction process.

At least 10% of materials will be sourced from within 800km of Dubai International, and 20% from recycled goods. 50% (of cost) of building materials will be comprised of products certified in accordance with the Forest Stewardship Councils’ principles and criteria.

The terminal’s lighting will combine natural sunlight with efficient lighting and sensors for maximum efficiency and minimum heat output.

On the rooftop, 192 solar panels, designed to produce energy and deflect the sun’s rays from the building, will be installed.

Though certainly appealing from a bird’s eye view, the solar project will account for only 1.8 percent of the total power requirement for the terminal.

Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths notes that new “green” terminal is in accord with a larger industry movement towards carbon neutrality.

“Designing environmentally friendly terminals is key to limiting our energy consumption and carbon footprint over time and fits in with our broader environmental policy. It also supports our industry’s target of carbon neutral growth by 2020,” said Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths.

Learn more about the The International Air Transport Association (IATA) Carbon Neutral goal here.

Image via Dubai International

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Its annual report for 2012, released earlier this month, shows that the country is moving forward on protecting the environment, “enhancing biodiversity” in the Emirate and said it will continue to “maintain sustainable development and provide a safe and healthy environment for the residents and citizens of the Emirate.”

It is all part of the EAD and other companies’ efforts to push forward on renewable energy sources. Solar power, clean energy and a reduction in overall consumption have been the leading goals for the emirate and as evidenced by the recent report, it is seemingly looking smooth.

Mohammed al-Bowardi, EAD’s Managing Director, said in the report that: “Since its establishment, EAD has carried out extensive scientific research, developed and implemented key environmental policies and monitored the Emirate’s environment to protect public health and ensure the integrity of its ecosystems.

“These efforts have been carried out under the directives of H.H Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, in line with the legacy of the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founding father of the UAE, and under the guidance of H.H Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Ruler’s Representative in the Western Region and Chairman of EAD.”

Al Bowardi continued: “Over the past years, EAD has led – on behalf of the Government – the development of the Abu Dhabi Environment Vision 2030, which sets our future agenda for environmental, economic and social policy-making and which will help point our Emirate towards more sustainable development.

“It breaks complex development issues into understandable, manageable, and achievable targets and offers a tool we can use to make decisions that protect the environment and the quality of life for future generations.

“The Abu Dhabi Environment Vision 2030 directs us in a collective response to help ensure more sustainable development by focusing on policy development and enforcement on issues such as climate change, clean air and reduced noise pollution, water resources, biodiversity, and waste management,” he said.

The report also comes on the heels of a massive investment project involving the UAE and its expertise in renewable energy for the United Kingdom. The UK Green Investment Bank and the United Arab Emirates Masdar have inked a new agreement that will see the UAE-based company work toward new investment opportunities in the United Kingdom, taking their expertise in renewable energy to Britain.

Al-Bowardi said that efforts like this will continue to see sustainable development be achievable in the country and that the world should take note of its progress on creating an economy that can be sustainable on its own, energy-wise and otherwise.

Editorial comment from Karin Kloosterman, Green Prophet editor: While we welcome all news of green progress in the Middle East, the question I have here is why aren’t there any NGOs in the region tracking progress made by the government? Self-congratulating is something all governments in the world are good at, especially now that eco is in, but we welcome a fresh approach – young people in the Gulf Region who can be brave enough to measure and report actual progress (and setbacks) being done on the ground. 

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In a previous post, I raised concerns over what an Islamic worldview can realistically offer those looking for a new sustainability model. After reading Odeh Al Jayoussi’s book on the topic, I felt that there were a lot more lingering questions than answers. Would Islamic sustainability really be considered an option outside the Middle East? What about those wary of any religious-based doctrine? Also after years following the ‘Western model of sustainability’, did we really want to be promoting another universal model? I caught up with Al Jayoussi,  the current vice president of Jordan’s Royal Scientific Society, and put these very questions to him. Read on for his responses.

Tell us a little about yourself, and how your work informed this book?

Well, this journey started almost thirty years ago when the United Nations University were embarking on a project on water and Islam for which I drafted two chapters on this topics as well as international law and shared water resources. This included notions such as equity, Ihsan and this evolved into a new framework of sustainability. At the International Union for Conservation of Nature (ICUN) this developed further when I visited Yemen in 2004 and I was exposed to interesting notions of local knowledge and the early heritage in Yemen. I was fascinated with the contrast of the old and the new. That you could envisage the notion of unity within diversity. Also, the eight years I was privileged to work at ICUN I visited many parts of the world including India, Pakistan, Costa Rica, Europe, the Gulf States and Mexico.

So I got to see different parts of the world and I was trying to reflect on the notion of sustainability and all of this went into the book. My work at ICUN was aimed at developing a new notion of sustainability based on local culture. I have some critique of the current, dominant model of sustainability which talks about the three pillars – the social, economic and ecological. I felt that the model lacked an embedded local culture and also a spiritual dimension. I was also looking for a topic which would help create a dialogue between East and West and I thought that the environment and ecosystems would be a great vehicle to communicate harmony and interconnectedness between these two.

You bring Islam to the centre of the debate on sustainability – was it difficult to make that connection?

Well, for me it wasn’t difficult at all. It’s all about how you view the world and I don’t see Islam as purely a religion but also as a worldview and a way of life. In that sense the aim of the book is to influence policy and enable scholars to talk to people and broaden their perspective from one which sees Islam just as a local religion to one which recognises that it is a worldview. It’s about looking at sustainability in a broader sense.

Do you see the model that you have put forward as a universal model or something that is particularly suited to the Middle East- North Africa region?

The intent is to present and articulate a universal discourse so that humanity can utilize Islam not only for harmony and tranquility but also for a dialogue to talk with others. We believe that Islam is mercy for the whole of humankind and is also a continuum of other religions and part of the human journey of knowing his destiny and having a sense of purpose and meaning.

I can see that there will be a real difficulty in applying this model in the West where Islam is seen only as a religion. Do you agree?

You are absolutely right. There is a difficulty in the West as there was a historical separation between church and state, man and woman etc. So this type of fragmentation was part of the Western journey in terms of knowledge. In this book, I was trying to look for unity or tawheed rather than separation and also looking at ways of overcoming this fragmentation. This includes the unity of disciplines, the unity of the now and hereafter, the unity between art and science – I was looking for synergies and complementary relationships rather than looking at things in pieces.

There is a growing recognition in the West that the current development models are not fit for purpose and that the growth economy is destructive. Do you think that now is a good time to be promoting new models and frameworks?

I think part of the challenge between East and West in terms of epistemology is two things – one is biology and the other is economic. In terms of biology we don’t agree with the West about evolution – we believe in creation and that man is dignified. The other dimension is money – the value of money and how it is generated in terms of interest. We believe that part of the ecological crisis stems from the fact that the current economic model doesn’t tells us the ecological truth as the metrics is based on GDP which as you know doesn’t reflect the wealth and health of nations or happiness. So we need to develop new metrics for sustainability or what I call the good life and so in order to define sustainability we need to define what a good life is. That’s why the notion sustainability needs to look at the notion of life generally to life with dignity, peace and harmony.

Do you get a sense that this is already a shift occurring in the West? For example, you hear a lot about the Happiness index and the Green GDP as there is a greater recognition of the flaws of the GDP.

Yes. I think it’s becoming increasingly clear that there is a need for a paradigm shift as the current economic model has a lot of flaws and defaults.

During this interview and also in your book, you talk about the importance of a local connection yet you also want this model to be universal. Are you hoping that if nations looks to apply this model in say Latin America that they would bring their own, local culture and interpretation into it?

Yes. In terms of the model and its universal applicability, it is all about unity within diversity. Part of that is talking to each other as we share the same destiny and there is a clear statement in the Qur’an which says that we are all created from nations and tribes so that we may get to know each other. So there is a universal message in the Qur’an which says that the prophet was sent as a mercy to the whole of mankind – not to Arabs or Muslims but to the whole humanity. However due to the degradation of civilisation we lost thing kind of universal message and we now it is time to revive a new discourse of universality and sustainability could the right medium through which we communicate this message.

What would be the benefits for the MENA region if they adopt this model?

I think that part of the challenge is that this part of this world was influenced by colonialism and after all these decades we are still affected by that way of thinking. Development in the South is mimicking and following the West in terms of consumerism and there is an disillusion in the Middle East that the Western model is the best model. This is a root cause of all sorts of social and ecological degradation and a general lack of human dignity. You cannot detach the issue of the environment from other issues such as poverty and social problems. So definitely this part of the world has been negatively impacted by following in the footsteps of the Western economic model and in a sense this part of the world lost its identity and has no pride or confidence in its local values. That’s why it has failed to have an ecological model that has local roots.

Is that the reason between the gap between the principles and practice in reality?

Absolutely, the Newtonian model looks at nature and plants as machines and part of the colonialism was that the region borrowing that type of thinking which brought with a whole host of problems. Now we need to revisit and rethink our whole social DNA and have our local roots in our local soil.

What have the reactions to the book been like?

I have had a lot of positive feedback from many scholars and people from the region and in Europe. Like you they were concerned with issues of relevancy, applicability and scalability. I think when we talk to people on a local level and with community organisations, there is real resonance and people appreciate notions such as Ihsan which is about inner beauty and unless we have that, we can reflect that onto the rest of the world. We can’t communicate harmony with the rest of the world if we don’t have an inner harmony. So having the right terminology is important and when I used the word hyat tayyebah which means a good life, it has more resonance within a local context. I think the real challenge is how we bring confidence and pride and a sense of appreciation of our local knowledge and I think in that area, a lot still needs to be done.

For more on Islamic perspectives on sustainability see:

Islam and Sustainable Development, A Book Covering These New Worldviews
Sharing Eden – Green Teachings from Jews, Christians and Muslims
London Mosques Start Beekeeping Trend – Interview
The Eco-Mosque Checklist – 7 Steps to a Greener Mosque
Consumerism, Ecology and the Sabbath

:: Photo of young South Asian women praying via Shutterstock.com

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Professor of public and environmental affairs at the University of Wisconsin in the United States, Dallas Blaney took a novel approach to the water-energy debate. Instead of telling us what we already know – that we’re running out of water and scurrying to generate more energy to meet rising demand – Blaney says we need to demystify the relationship between the two.

Distinctly academic, Blaney wastes no words getting to the point of his entry:

While it is generally well known that water is essential to the production of energy, we nonetheless lack a detailed understanding of the quality and quantity of water used in this process (1). Conversely, we know that the treatment and distribution of water is energy intensive, yet we know very little about the energy required or how this demand has changed over time (2). Given the expectation of dramatically higher demands for energy and water over the coming years, this knowledge gap poses a significant threat to the long-term sustainability of our political, social, and economic systems.

This is the crux of the matter. We know that there is some kind of relationship between energy and water, but we don’t have succinct numbers. And until we do, it will be difficult to demand more efficient conservation of either.

Blaney then answers the questions that instinctively arise in response to stating the challenge. How?

First, he says, the issue was raised as a “thematic priority” at the 6th World Water Forum in Marseille last year. He added that another important topic to address is how energy generation impacts water quality. This has become a particular concern in communities subject to “fracking.”

Shortly after this discussion convened, Blaney wrote, Gustaf Olsson published Water and Energy: Threats and Opportunities – further indication that the issue is receiving attention. This is what he said about it:

This book marks the first attempt to develop a comprehensive assessment of the energy-water nexus. Substantive chapters examine the water demands for a range of energy production systems, including crude oil and hydropower.

Up until now, Blaney acts like a good academic. Having this data, in theory, should promote better practices. But what about the throng of people, including 77% of Americans polled, who have no idea where their own water is sourced? How does this data help them?

Blaney realizes that in order to for there to be any kind of progress, real people have to be empowered with useful knowledge too. While more data about the intersection between energy and water might be useful to policy makers, the consumer needs to understand how their choices affect the overall availability of both resources as well.

What is being done to ensure that progression, according to Blaney?

Both The Nature Conservancy and WWF focus specifically on raising awareness within the business community. Capitalizing on their scientific expertise, these organizations have each developed water assessment tools that businesses can quickly and cheaply use to identify water-related inefficiencies and risks in their supply chains or production systems. In contrast, Project WET specializes in the creation of water-related textbooks and curricula for primary school children. Over time, these efforts have expanded beyond the US to reach tens of thousands of students spread across 19 countries.

There’s more, but I urge readers to visit Masdar’s site in order to read the full entry. Once you there, take a look at the UAE post that garnered the most social media attention in addition to all five finalist posts.

Image of the Gemasolar tower in Spain via Masdar’s Facebook page

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