Sustainability a challenge ahead of Dubai Expo 2020

Environment experts say that the clock is ticking for Emirates to take place among world’s sustainability pacesetters.

DUBAI // Experts and advocates of environmental development gathered on Monday at the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry to discuss sustainability ahead of Expo 2020.

Sponsored by the embassy of Sweden, the seminar, Building the Sustainability Momentum for UAE–Expo 2020 and Beyond, addressed the broader topic of bringing sustainable development to Dubai.

Habibi Al Marashi, founder and chief executive of Arabia CSR Network and Emirates Environmental Group, said knowledge was the key.

“If we want to have a vision that is forward thinking and a radical change in the way we are conducting business, innovation has to come into the picture,” she said.

Ms Al Marashi, president of the UN Global Compact Network GCC States, highlighted improving energy efficiency, reducing costs and working around limited resources as key challenges for Dubai.

“I know the journey we have started will make us pathfinders and leaders of sustainable development,” she said. “When we talk about sustainability, it’s usually from the perspective of environment, but when we talk about it we must take a holistic approach.”

Ms Al Marashi said that innovation should not only come from governmental initiatives, but also from society in the form of services, businesses and the attitude of the general population.

“It falls not on the role of the government only, but also the private sector. Civil society and non-profit organisations must work as partners towards improving the efficiency of the way in which we conduct business.”

Drawing on lessons learnt during his work on Shanghai 2010, where there was a heightened focus on making the event ecologically friendly, Bengt Johansson, Sweden’s corporate social responsibility ambassador, said Dubai must give thought to what the world would look like in 2020.

“What I feel is that the environmental issues will be more important,” Mr Johansson said. At the climate summit in Paris next year, “we will have to decide whether we succeeded in reducing the world’s temperature or fail and have development spin out of control”.

For Expo 2020, he said the world would focus on Dubai and questions would be raised about the event’s ability to be CO2 neutral and whether it was good for the environment. “If not, then there will be a negative reaction to it and this is something that the planners need to have in mind,” Mr Johansson said.

Najeeb Al Ali, Expo 2020 advisor, said that in planning the event Dubai was faced with the challenge of not having a precedent that it could follow to make its projects green.

“One of the things we realised is that there is no globally recognised standard, a checklist you can follow in terms of how to make an event sustainable,” he said.

In terms of actually building the facilities, however, organisers were using internationally recognised building standards and event management regulations in the event.

Mr Al Ali said that sustainability required more than just federally supported technology and government policies for laws and education. He said success was contingent on the ability of a city to create a complete ecosystem of sustainability.

Host countries, he said, usually used an expo as a chance to showcase an aspect of their city in which they were particularly proficient, In Dubai’s case, transformation.

“Thirty years ago who wanted to come to Dubai?” Mr Al Ali said. “Now everyone is dreaming. When it comes to creating the future there is no place like Dubai.”