corporaTes & residenTs embrace green

Dubai Municipality’s initiatives such as ‘My City, My Environment’ and ‘Smart Sustainability Oasis Project’ are helping to make a dent in the city’s carbon footprint. The former campaign encourages people to recycle by separating their waste into specific bins and has resulted in a 25 per cent increase in recycling activity over the year. The latter project has built on this campaign in a smart way — sensor-equipped bins allow for intelligent data collection through GPRS technology. Moreover, the 11 recycling centres across the city are in turn made of recycled material — the floor is repurposed wood, the main frame is from a shipping container, and the roof comes with solar panels. Private services such as the Green

Truck (which provides a bin to each subscriber, collects the recyclables weekly, and forwards it to UAE-based factories as raw material) and Take

My Junk (which collects unwanted things from each home) are bringing recycling to your doorstep. Communities are also joining in —

Emirates Living provides all homes with an outdoor recycling bin at no cost. Corporations can (and do) design socially responsible initiatives with Dulsco, which spearheads one of the biggest recycling programmes in Dubai. After an audit, customised waste management and recycling plans, education and awareness programmes, and monthly reports — recycling becomes part of a corporate policy. Dubai Culture’s Namaa is another excellent example of managing office paper efficiently. It’s time you bring in the recycling culture to your workplace. Start now.