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Blame it on climate change, and one powerful documentary. Or oil prices inching into an ozone-depleted stratosphere.
But there's no getting away from the fact that sustainability is the new buzzword flashing everywhere: from supermarket check-outs to multibillion dollar real estate schemes.
And with the rise of the ethical, eco-conscious consumer, going green also translates into big bucks for business.
Quite a few world class companies are realising that they don't have to get into the red when they go green.
Sustainability initiatives for these businesses are truly sustainable: being linked to profitability and increased market share for these companies while benefiting the planet.
In his bestselling book, Firms of Endearment: How World Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose, Dr Raj Sisodia along with co-authors David Wolfe and Jag Sheth, argue that companies that do well by their customers, suppliers and the communities they operate in are also able to turn in spectacular profits.
Dr Sisodia's book studied 35 such companies, none of whom are boutique New Agey operations, but extremely profitable multinationals who believe in doing the right thing for the environment, their suppliers and consumers.
Some of them include Toyota, Whole Foods, Ikea, Costco and Harley-Davidson. Sisodia describes it as a stakeholder view of the world, rather than a shareholder view that emphasises profit above all else.
Profitability and the planet
In today's business environment, a company ignores sustainability at its peril. While businesses are under increasing pressure from consumers to be sustainable, there is also a new political will to do so, given increasing oil prices and the socio-economic damages wreaked by climate change.
The environmental movement has ensured that almost every big business now assesses the impact of its actions on the planet.
Far removed from their former bad cred as villains ruining the planet, corporations today - from McDonald's to Masafi - are now trying to be seen as the ones saving the environment.
Masafi, the regional leader in bottled mineral water, has an ongoing plastic recycling campaign in 30 schools across the UAE.
Bins to collect used plastic bottles are placed next to dispensers and the processed plastic is then sold to ISO-certified, municipality-approved dealers for non-food recycled plastic applications.
Most of these green initiatives are part of robust corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies as companies wake up to the business benefits of being ethical.
There is a strong co-relationship between CSR and fiscal performance - almost half of the top 250 companies in the world today have well-established CSR programmes.
Environmental organisations have found that businesses are more reliable and effective partners when it comes to working together on causes: from waste recycling to planting trees, big business has realised that being sustainable is the only way to go.
However, CSR also suffers from being confused with philanthropy.
Mike Longhurst, senior vice president at McCann-Erickson EMEA, believes that while giving away profits may make for a feel good story, it's certainly not what sustainability is about.
For him sustainability is an incremental process, not an overnight transformation of the business.
"Corporate social responsibility definitely starts with the products and how they are made. If any aspects of a product's life cycle - from the moment raw materials are dug out, to how a product is consumed and ultimately disposed - are inherently not sustainable, then that CSR initiative might be nice from the PR point of view, but really, that is not what CSR is about," he says.
"The focus for most businesses these days starts from level one sustainability - starting from products in the supply chain, making those sustainable and then adding more. If you simply commit acts of generosity, it raises the suspicion that you could be doing so to divert attention away from other aspects."
Going green in real estate
Dubai's biggest industry has been greening itself recently. And it couldn't have come sooner: Dubai has the dubious distinction of having one of the world's biggest ecological footprints, even bigger than the US.
The real estate industry needs a low carbon diet: not only is the construction process resource and energy intensive, but buildings use a lot of energy in cooling and other operations.
Miami-based architect Chad Oppenheim, founder and principal of Oppenheim Architecture + Design, who is designing a few sustainable projects for UAE developers says, "Developers don't want to do something to destroy the environment. But they have a methodology that entails you have to build for set prices.
"We were able to convince our clients that they would get better or similar results in a very saturated marketplace (through sustainable design).
"We also convinced the clients that they would be able to generate more excitement, higher prices and get more publicity through a green concept."
As part of branding strategies, companies are also taking tenancies in green buildings, or designing their corporate headquarters to be green to meet their CSR targets.
Desalination, water supply and waste water treatment company Metito has integrated sustainability into its marketing plan, as it dovetails with the company's core business and also significantly enhances its brand perception.
Budoor Hunnoon, corporate communications manager of Metito, says: "Over the last five decades, Metito has been supporting and promoting various CSR activities in the region.
"This year, one of our most noteworthy achievements involved the completion of our new headquarters in Technopark, Dubai, one of the leading green buildings in the Middle East to achieve the LEED gold level."
The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System is a standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings.
Metito's new building will be one of only four green buildings in the UAE certified by the US Green Building Council.
However, experts caution investors that a lot of the projects being touted as eco-friendly are simply a case of greenwashing: overstating their environmental credentials to cut through the real estate marketing clutter and woo the international, eco-conscious investor.
Pacific Control Systems' five-storey headquarters at TechnoPark, is globally one among only 16 structures that has earned the LEED platinum rating.
Dilip Rahulan, founder and CEO of Pacific Controls Systems, says, "You can achieve a LEED certification with a marginal one per cent increase in cost. But going for gold or platinum certification is a more stringent process."
Rahulan cites the cost of his solar air-conditioning system, which at Dhs4 million is twice the cost of a conventional plant in a building of this size.
However, the long-term reduced life cycle costs also make a strong business case for adopting green technology.
For a company like PCS, the building is a powerful branding tool, showcasing as it does the company's portfolio of technologies and establishing it as one committed to sustainability.
Share of heart
When a business is perceived to be green, it also has intangible benefits such as increasing employee pride and satisfaction in their workplace. Sisodia calls it "share of heart": the hard-to-explain love that consumers and employees feel for companies which care for others.
In part it's inspired by CEOs such as John Mackey of Whole Foods, who insist on doing the right thing even at the cost of short-term profitability.
On a micro level, environmental auditing and implementation of eco-friendly practices can lead to a potentially happier and more productive workforce and significant cost savings.
Through environmental auditing, workplaces can become more efficient in the use of paper (eg, making double-sided photocopying compulsory).
Operating costs can be lowered by reducing electricity usage (eg, reminding staff to turn off lights or terminals) and water usage (eg, introducing water efficient taps or half-flush toilets).
There is also an argument that a green building itself can actually enhance the work environment - with good air and a healthy environment an employee's productivity is likely to improve.
As global awareness about issues such as climate change has increased, environmentally safe products and materials have received a proportionate boost in popularity.
EnvironmentStocks.com (ES) an investor and industry news portal for the green sector, has reported on the growing movement towards eco-friendly products and services.
General Electric doubled its sales of environmentally friendly products to $12 billion over the past two years.
Much like in the global marketplace, regional companies are also fast realising that sustainability is above all, a business approach that creates long-term value while nurturing and supporting precious human and natural resources.
What do you think companies in Dubai should do to be more environmentally responsible?
Write to formenmag@alnisrmedia.com
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