DUBAI // A small band of enthusiastic and dedicated UAE residents put their heads together yesterday to come up with ideas as part of a global effort to improve sustainability and quality of life.
High-school students, auditors and engineers are meeting over two days at the Dubai Sustainability Jam to champion conservation.
The 16-member group in Dubai is among teams in 60 countries which will tackle local and international challenges.
The persistent Dubai-Sharjah traffic gridlock was taken up by one Dubai group. Their answers include better-connected bus routes, awarding points and rewards for those who leave their cars at home and take public transport, and better coordinated car pooling to cut carbon emissions.
“I had no idea what the sustainability concept would be about at first, but I love gaining experience that will help me in my university life, like working on a project and making a prototype,” said Baptiste Parneis, a high-school pupil from Dubai International Academy.
“Ours is an idea for transport but there could be different perspectives to aid society in health care, in politics; there are no right or wrong ideas.”
For Bilal Maarouf, an engineer, creating concrete proposals for transport was important.
“People will be more energised to start their day instead of losing energy, time and increasing stress with a long commute,” said Mr Maarouf.
“This will help on an environmental level because the route is congested with cars. It will yield better efficiency and improve lives if people can get to offices and homes earlier.”
Steve Ashby, the chief ideologist at Systems4 – which provides business tools for small and medium enterprises, said the team planned to approach authorities with its ideas.
“We can upload this online, approach the RTA (Roads and Transport Authority) with a radically different approach, reduce cars on roads, incentivise car pooling. I never thought of this until I sat down here with these guys,” he said.
“Environmental change can’t take place immediately but cutting down on cars will help lower carbon emissions and help people with respiratory problems. There could be enormous benefits.”
This was Dubai’s first “sustainability jam” and the founders aim to make it a regular fixture.
“This is about actually building and creating a prototype of ideas and co-creating concepts,” said Helen Sell, founder of Customer at Heart, the event organiser.
“We want people to think visually and create physical models or role-play a prototype.”
Cardboard boxes, Lego models, business origami or paper cut-outs would be used by participants to demonstrate their ideas, she said.
The Dubai participants linked up on video with cities such as Kuwait City, Sydney, Australia, and Manchester, England to learn about other projects.
For many it was a chance to absorb new ideas.
“The concepts that are being exchanged here really can blow you away because there are people from so many different streams,” said Angela Alexander, an auditor from Abu Dhabi.
“Sustainability is my field of work, but energising people to think about the topic in everyday life, that is the motivator,” said Antoaneta Popova, chief executive of iLearn CSR Academy, which partners multinationals on corporate social responsibility.
“People still don’t know much about sustainability, so coming up with something creative for this part of the world is challenging.”
rtalwar@thenational.ae