Lisa Durante, who spent a decade working as a development journalist in India before moving to Dubai, is publishing a book called CleanUAE.
Lisa Durante, who spent a decade working as a development journalist in India before moving to Dubai, is publishing a book called CleanUAE.

Keep it clean, keep it green



DUBAI // An Italian expatriate is hoping to inspire us all to live and work more sustainably.With high-impact lifestyles and rapid development, the UAE has a long way to go, says Lisa Durante.But the good news is, the nation has the means and opportunity to do so.

Ms Durante, who spent a decade working as a development journalist in India before moving to Dubai, is publishing a book CleanUAE.

She is the managing group editor for the book's publishers, GVP Media, a company known for its "best of" annual book series, which started with Dubai guidebooks and spread to Belgium, Singapore, South Africa and Australia.

The company plans to update CleanUAE on an annual basis and expand to the region, with Bahrain and Saudi Arabia the initial targets. The book, which was showcased to the press yesterday in Dubai, covers a variety of topics including organic agriculture and the water-saving potential of vegetarianism.

It lists ways to reduce waste and trim individual carbon footprints and highlights companies that offer responsible products and services or have implemented their own sustainability programmes.

"The book does not aim to be an in-depth scientific compendium on sustainability, we will leave this to the experts … but rather something that people can pick up and have a sprinkling of inspiration," said Ms Durante. "I got the idea by looking at the kinds of key messages in the West, where … consumer choices are made based on the sustainability criteria applied by companies."

The biggest hurdle was finding reliable, objective information on individual companies: those that ended up being included in it became a "coalition of the willing".

"In terms of doing the research, it has been a big challenge," she said. "I invited companies to participate and tell me their stories. Many have and many have not."

Ensuring greater transparency - both from companies and the Government - is a key factor to starting meaningful dialogue on sustainability and incorporating it in people's lives," she said.

The UAE has "got the highest tower and the biggest shopping mall," she says. "Let us start building our infrastructure in a sustainable way."

While environmental performance - reducing pollution and waste and protecting habitats - is a key focus of sustainability, social and economic considerations matter too.

"It is just as important to look after people, it is just as important to have good labour laws," she said.

At the official book launch tonight, which comes the day before the UAE National Environment Day, a high -profile US politician best known for her work on human rights and peace activism, will be addressing guests.

Cynthia McKinney was the Green Party presidential candidate in the 2008 elections. Speaking in advance of tonight's launch, she said that control of precious resources can often motivate state policy in a way that violates basic principles of human rights - even in western democracies such as the US.

"My personal self-definition would involve the struggle to have the promotion and protection of human rights at the centre of US policy," she added.

"In the past, it might have been difficult [to rally people around such issues] because things were going very well. As long as you would put cheap gas in the car or there was employment for almost everybody, there was little incentives to question. Today, things are greatly changing.

"The winners and losers are becoming more clearly evident and the vast majority of the people are losers, and Mother Nature is a loser, too," said Ms McKinney.

Not facing the significant financial constraints experienced by other countries, the UAE can make quick steps towards a sustainable future, she said.

"They have the means, they have the opportunity, all they need is the motive," she said. "Perhaps the UAE can show the US a thing or two about how to live sustainably."

Company%20Profile
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Tree of Hell

Starring: Raed Zeno, Hadi Awada, Dr Mohammad Abdalla

Director: Raed Zeno

Rating: 4/5

Dr Graham's three goals

Short term

Establish logistics and systems needed to globally deploy vaccines


Intermediate term

Build biomedical workforces in low- and middle-income nations


Long term

A prototype pathogen approach for pandemic preparedness  

Cricket World Cup League 2

UAE squad

Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind

Fixtures

Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE

Cinco in numbers

Dh3.7 million

The estimated cost of Victoria Swarovski’s gem-encrusted Michael Cinco wedding gown

46

The number, in kilograms, that Swarovski’s wedding gown weighed.

1,000

The hours it took to create Cinco’s vermillion petal gown, as seen in his atelier [note, is the one he’s playing with in the corner of a room]

50

How many looks Cinco has created in a new collection to celebrate Ballet Philippines’ 50th birthday

3,000

The hours needed to create the butterfly gown worn by Aishwarya Rai to the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.

1.1 million

The number of followers that Michael Cinco’s Instagram account has garnered.

Company%20Profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENamara%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EJune%202022%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMohammed%20Alnamara%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMicrofinance%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20number%20of%20staff%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E16%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeries%20A%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFamily%20offices%0D%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
MATCH INFO

Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Bayern Munich v Real Madrid

When: April 25, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Allianz Arena, Munich
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 1, Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid

Singham Again

Director: Rohit Shetty

Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone

Rating: 3/5

The specs

Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cylinder petrol

Power: 154bhp

Torque: 250Nm

Transmission: 7-speed automatic with 8-speed sports option 

Price: From Dh79,600

On sale: Now

APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)

Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits

Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine

Storage: 128/256/512GB

Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4

Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps

Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID

Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight

In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter

Price: From Dh2,099

Results

2pm: Handicap Dh 90,000 1,800m; Winner: Majestic Thunder, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Satish Seemar (trainer).

2.30pm: Handicap Dh120,000 1,950m; Winner: Just A Penny, Sam Hitchcott, Doug Watson.

3pm: Handicap Dh105,000 1,600m; Winner: Native Appeal, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson.

3.30pm: Jebel Ali Classic Conditions Dh300,000 1,400m; Winner: Thegreatcollection, Adrie de Vries, Doug Watson.

4pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,600m; Winner: Oktalgano, Xavier Ziani, Salem bin Ghadayer.

4.30pm: Conditions Dh250,000 1,400m; Winner: Madame Ellingtina, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar.

5pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,600m; Winner: Mystery Land, Fabrice Veron, Helal Al Alawi.

5.30pm: Handicap Dh85,000 1,000m; Winner: Shanaghai City, Jesus Rosales, Rashed Bouresly.

Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha

Starring: Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Shantanu Maheshwari, Jimmy Shergill, Saiee Manjrekar

Director: Neeraj Pandey

Rating: 2.5/5

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SPECS
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Fitness problems in men's tennis

Andy Murray - hip

Novak Djokovic - elbow

Roger Federer - back

Stan Wawrinka - knee

Kei Nishikori - wrist

Marin Cilic - adductor