Forward Talks: Recent Episodes
Goumbook
Forward Talks is a podcast about moving towards sustainability, brought to you by the people behind Goumbook, the UAE’s first social enterprise. Each episode will feature a sustainability changemaker — leaders & professionals who through their work, entrepreneurship & commitment promote sustainability in the UAE and through the region.
ESG – a holistic concept that has roots dating back to the 1960s, has evolved over the decades gaining more traction in recent years within the corporate sustainability context. Referring to the environmental (‘E’), social (‘S’) and governance (‘G’) pillars within the sustainability framework, they are key to addressing the impacts of corporate activities and investments on people and the planet. With the current lack of unified reporting standards, definition and many frameworks influencing the ESG space, we gathered a network of experts and an all-star panel from different industries, contexts and trajectories to discuss the challenges and highlight opportunities around ESG reporting – from regulation and standardization to quality data collection and the measurement of impact. This think tank was run by Goumbook in partnership with Emex and hosted by Jumeirah Group in their flagship hotel Burj Al Arab on 3rd of June, 2022. It included a presentation by Daniel Gribbin - VP of Sustainability and ESG at Emex, and a panel discussion that was moderated by Tatiana Antonelli Abella, featuring Mohamad El Khalil - Director of Prudential Supervision at DFSA, Mariam Alqubaisi - Head of Sustainability and Business Excellence at Etihad, Adrienne Doolan - CEO of Green Touches and Board Member of UN Global Compact Network UAE, and Ashraf Abdelkhalek - Sustainability, Health and Safety Leader for Gulf Countries at Schneider Electric.
Tatiana is joined on this episode by Paul Newnham, Chair of the Public Engagement Task Force for the UN Food Systems Summit and Vice Chair of the Food System Champion Network. He is also Director of the SDG2 Advocacy Hub Secretariat and the Chefs’ Manifesto Coordinator. Paul heads up the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 Advocacy Hub as Director, an initiative bringing together NGOs, advocacy groups, civil society, the private sector and UN agencies to coordinate global campaigning and advocacy to achieve SDG2. To this end, the Hub has worked with a community of 240+ chefs from 38 countries to create a Chefs’ Manifesto–a framework outlining how chefs can contribute to the SDGs. Tatiana met him in Dubai when Paul came to release the Hub’s Chef Manifesto in Arabic alongside some powerhouse local chefs. Links:
SDG2 Advocacy Hub
Chef’s Manifesto
Good Food For All
In this episode, Tatiana is joined by Tarek Al Khoury, Regional Coordinator for Resource Efficiency and Sustainable Consumption and Production at the West Asia Office of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). They talk about UNEP initiatives to promote the UN Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals, more precisely SDG12, and how we can all work together to reduce food waste. Recently Tarek was also part of a panel discussion moderated by Tatiana at the Food For Future Summit 2022 to discuss policies and legal frameworks to reduce food waste. Food waste is a topic that needs our urgent attention, and this has come up a few times on the show with previous guests as well:
Rethinking food waste as a resource, with Ryan Ingram
Organic farming in the UAE, with Elena Kinane
Sustainable fine dining, with Luca Gagliardi
Pioneering sustainable solutions to tackle food security, with Abdulaziz AlMulla
The role of insects in the future of food, with Patrick Crowley
Philip Morris International's ongoing sustainability efforts include working to lower emissions, use energy more efficiently, and combat deforestation. In addition, PMI is determined to fight the environmental damage caused by plastic and post-consumer waste from their products - particularly cigarette butts. Around the globe, PMI teams have organized litter cleanups, launched awareness campaigns, and partnered with environmental NGOs and academics. In June 2020, Philip Morris International launched its first Integrated Report in which they announced their global commitment to achieve a 50% reduction of the plastic litter from their products by 2025 (vs. 2021). Accomplishing that goal will require a fundamental development of public education and awareness. Most essentially, adult smokers need to understand that it is unacceptable to dispose of their cigarette butts improperly. Therefore, PMI has launched a global initiative Our World is not an Ashtray with the aim of making cigarette butt littering a thing of the past. Exemplary performance on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues is important, but it is equally clear that the biggest positive impact PMI can have on society and to be a truly sustainable company is to replace cigarettes with less-harmful alternatives. The realization of this podcast was supported by Philip Morris Management Service (Middle East) Limited.
This week, digging into the National Pavilion of the UAE for the Biennale Architettura 2021 Wetland, which is curated by Wael Al Awar and Kenichi Teramoto. The prototype is created from recycled industrial waste brine, handcast into organic shapes to recall the UAE’s traditional coral-built houses and spans 7m by 5m, with a height of 2.7 meters. We’re joined on the episode by Laila Binbrek who has served as the National Pavilion’s coordinating director since 2014, and Wael Al Awar, Founding Partner at WaiWai Design and one of the curators of the current edition of the Pavilion. The exhibit was also just awarded the Golden Lion award for Best National Participation at the Venice Architecture Biennale. The 17th International Architecture Exhibition (Biennale Architettura 2021) will run from 22 May to 21 November 2021 with national Anti Covid-19 measures in place. You can find more information including a virtual tour here.
We're back with a new episode, talking to Rasmus Astrup, a partner at SLA Architects, the company behind the Al Fey Park in Abu Dhabi. Al Fey Park is the first urban park in the UAE, spanning 27,000 square meters and with a focus on biodiversity featuring over 2,000 local flora.
A lot of people think of decluttering as merely cleaning up or getting rid of things but not many understand its link with living a low impact life. When someone else uses something we get rid of, it reduces their consumption and impact just as much as our own. And as we consume less, we need fewer cupboards, shelves, boxes and even smaller living spaces.
This week, we're joined by Shelina Jokhiya, Founder of DeCluttr Me, the UAE's first licensed professional decluttering service, and the Host of the DeCluttr Me podcast. We talked about basic decluttering concepts, how to deal with e-waste and the harmful impacts if this is not disposed properly as well as the more emotional downsides of clutter that we should all be aware of.
According to the The NY Researcher Market Watch, the electric 2-wheeler market is expected to grow at a compound rate of 4.6% to reach US$6.9 billion by 2024. This week, we're joined by Adam Ridgeway, the founder & CEO of One Moto here in Dubai, which finds itself at the forefront of this growth in the region. It is the first company in the UAE whose bikes have been approved by the local Roads & Transport Authority (RTA).
This week, we're joined by Her Highness Sheikha Intisar Al Sabah, a princess of the royal AlSabah family of Kuwait. Sheikha Intisar is a philanthropist, entrepreneur, author and columnist. She believes in using her knowledge, experience and personal discoveries to inspire people to look, feel and do better and is now on a mission to empower one million Arab women.
In 2013 she launched Alnowair, the first GCC non-profit working with schools to improve well-being among children through positive psychology. This year the program has covered 11,600 children so far. And in 2017 she launched the Intisar Foundation, which works with with NGOs in Jordan and Lebanon to offer drama therapy to women affected by war and female victims of violence.
This week, we're joined by Sunil Lalvani, the founder of Project Maji which seeks to bring sustainable access to safe water across rural sub-Saharan Africa through solar-powered water kiosks. Sunil shares his experience on starting & operating a social enterprise in the region and the overall impact having safe drinking water has on the youth and their quality of life.
This week, we’re sharing a conversation from a few months ago when we attended (and had a live podcast station) the Global Forum on Innovations for Marginal Envionrments held by ICBA in Dubai; the opening address by Her Excellency Mariam Bint Mohammed Almheiri, the Minister of State for Food Security in the UAE. Our guest is Patrick Crowley who founded Chapul 8 years ago when he came across a water-efficient source of protein ... crickets. Since then the company has been producing energy bars & powders based on insect protein and envision a world in which insects can provide an efficient and alternate source of food worldwide.
As we all continue to deal with the impacts of the restrictions in place to control the spread of the Novel Coronavirus, we’d like to encourage you to support your local businesses at this time in any way possible—whether it is ordering from them, donating to them, sharing their information to help spread the word, as some businesses are offering buying their services upfront at a discount for when they eventually open.
One such business is Organic Glow, the UAE’s first organic and all-vegan salon that opened nearly 10 years ago. Listen in for how she got started as well as her advice on various harsh chemicals we are exposed to in our day-to-day lives.
If you’d like to connect with us, you can find us on Instagram and listen to all of our episodes on our website.
This week, we're joined by David Ramos Álvarez, Senior Manager of Sustainability at HSBC and Keith Bradley, Founder & Managing Partner at Globally. The two companies have partnered together as part of the Living Business Programme which aims to help startups adopt more sustainable practices in their operations. Tune in to find out more about the partnership, how you can get involved as well as other initiatives at play in the region to promote sustainability programs.
You can connect with us via Instagram and find all of our episodes in your favourite podcast player or on the web.
This week, we're joined by Abdulaziz AlMulla, the founder & CEO of Madar Farms about the realities of water consumption and its effect on food security, how they’re handling this imbalance as well as helping educate the masses about the problem. The realities of just 1% of our land being farmland while more than 80% of our water consumption going towards agriculture is a terrifying imbalance. Madar Farms started out in 2017 to focus on using controlled-environment agriculture methods such as hydronics to conserve water while ensuring a healthy production of vegetables. We'd love to hear what you thought of our episode so let us know on Instagram and find all our previous episodes in your podcast players and on the web. Stay safe and see you next week.
This week, on the anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh in 2013, which killed 1,138 people and injured many more, we encourage millions of people to come together to campaign for systemic change in the fashion industry.
We are living in a climate emergency and the fashion & textiles sector is one of the most polluting and wasteful industries. So why are we featuring a podcast about this industry today? It's because GoShopia sells fashion with a conscience by shying away from fast fashion trends towards more sustainable brands. Tune to listen to their co-founder Araceli Gallego to know about sustainable fashion and why we should all be thinking more consciously about what we buy and wear.
We're joined this week via web conference by Saeed Al Jabbar, founder & MD of AESG, a specialist consultancy firm focused on energy, sustainable development and urban improvement. We talk to Saeed about AESG's approach to better urban development, the impact of the current world situation on the construction industry & his take on a more circular approach to construction.
We'd love to hear what you think of the episode. You can connect with us on Instagram and find all our episodes in your podcast players and on the web.
We hope you and your loved ones are safe, and that you're listening to this episode from the comfort of your home.
This week, we're sharing our conversation with Maria Sillanpaa, founder of Sustainability Advisory. This was a conversation we did much before the restrictions were put in to control the spread of the Novel Coronavirus.
Maria joins us to talk about the first-of-its-kind Conscious Consumer UAE State of Play 2019, where they surveyed 1,300 citizens and residents in the country to understand how sustainability conscious the average consumer is in the UAE.
You'll find a link to the report (and its free summary) below. You can also reach out to us with your thoughts on our website, on LinkedIn and on Instagram.
This week, we're joined by Tanzeed Alam, MD of Earth Matters — they are a consultancy focusing on strategy & advisory services to help find practical solutions around climate crises and human development. Tanzeed shares his thought on climate change and how they're enabling the businesses they work with. We also talk about the current pandemic and what businesses can learn from its impacts worldwide. Over the next few weeks we hope to share more conversations about the various issues the pandemic has highlighted—from business practices that affect us to how we may look to rebuilt once its effect is contained. Connect with us on Instagram and find all our episodes in your podcast players and on the web.
With March 22 being World Water Day, we're joined on this episode by Adam Torrey from The Water Project, a non-profit focused on reliable water projects around clean water and sanitization in sub-Saharan Africa. Adam shares how The Water Project meets its goals as well as helps put various aspects around our water consumption into persepctive for us.
Later this week, we'll be sharing our conversation with Tanzeed Alam from Earth Matters, where we talk about how the current Coronavirus pandemic should us cause to rethink the way we do business and some of its impacts.
You can connect with on Instagram and find all of our previous episodes on our website if you'd like to catch up on them.
On this episode, we’re joined by Maggie Doyne, founder of Blink Now Foundation, which provides quality education & a safe environment for children in Nepal. With thanks to Dana Al Matrook, founder of the Kind Human Collective.
This week, we're talking to Dr. David Roze, from the Dr. Roze & Associates Dental Clinic and the first member of our Fair Care initiative to provide affordable dental care to those who need it. Dr. Roze also explains why everything is linked to our teeth & how holistic medicine including dentistry is the future.
You can follow us on Instagram](https://instagram.com/goumbook) and find all the episodes of the show in your favourite podcast player, or on the web.
We had the opporutnity to sit down with the team from the Abu Dhabi Distribution Company during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, which brings together policy makers, industry specialists and the next generation of sustainability leaders under one roof. Engr. Mohamed Al Mazrouei, Project Director, and Humaid Al Shamsi, Reveneue Management Division Manager, told us about their new recycled water project and the AquaTEC initiative.
Happy New Year everyone!
We're back this week with the inspiring Elham AlQasm, the first Arab woman to ski to the North Pole in 2010. As she was looking for her next venture, she launched the Natural Laundry Company in 2015 to correct the perceptions people have about dry cleaning and to help both customers and employees live a toxin-free life.
Once again, we want to thank you for joining us on our journey, this was our 25th episode! We'll be back in two weeks with a new guest. Until then, you can follow us on Instagram](https://instagram.com/goumbook) and find all the episodes of the show in your favourite podcast player, or on the web.
Assia Riccio is the founder of Evolvin Women, an organization that provides a platform to prepare unemployed women from less privileged backgrounds in Africa. In just 3 years, Evolvin Women provides support, including 550+ hours each month of mentorship to the women they help as part of their program.
This week, we're talking to Yann Borgstedt, a Swiss entrepreneur turned philanthropist who started the Womanity Foundation in 2005 with a focus on empowering women in countries such as Afghanistan, Brazil, India and the Middle East & North Africa.
We recently celebrated World Energy Day, and when we talk about energy, one of the major considerations is that of transportation. On this episode we're we’re talking to a company that is looking to tackle this issue of awareness of electric vehicles (EVs), and help improve their adoption through people and community initiatives in Dubai -- Evera, which stands for Electric Vehicles for Environmental Regenerative Action.
Our guest today is Sallyann Della Casa is the founder of GLEAC and Chief Tree Hugger at the Growing Leaders Foundation, something she started in 2010. Sallyann used to be a real-estate lawyer, but by 2012 she was already working on upskilling youth through workshops and training. This evolved into her current role as Chief Identity Hacker at GLEAC, a tech platform that helps discover and strengthen human soft skills & behaviour.
We are joined this week by Nicholas Brooks, a local entrepreneur dedicated to Sustainability.
As a passionate cyclist, him and his friend Stewart Howison started riding regularly in Al Qudra, later founding Cycle Safe Dubai. Along the way they were approached on the road by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum to discuss the creation of the now famous Al Qudra Cycle Track.
In 2018, together with another long-term friend and previous business partner, Nicholas started Zaeto, developing a product for the GCC with a core focus on the environment, alongside cost effectiveness for businesses: “While Zaeto can be generalized as a lubricants and grease company, it is so much more than that. We are impacting the environment positively, reducing harmful emissions by 40 per cent, while increasing fuel economy and lubricating parts better and more efficiently. This results in improvements in sustainability.”
This week, we’re talking to Adrienne Doolan, CEO of Green Touches, about how she got started with using Ozone as a cleaning agent and why she believes we should talk about environment ‘sincerity’ rather than just sustainability.
Combining a genuine passion for the environment, promoting a sustainable way of life and working with integrity, her company Green Touches, founded in 2015, has brought an entirely new concept to the Facility Management industry in the Middle East, striving to be a disruption within this industry towards achieving sustainability.
Adrienne is also a newly elected Board member of the United Nations Global Compact local network UAE, working on the 10 Universal Principles and the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals 2030, and Green Touches is an active participating member of the local chapter.
With nearly 20 years of experience in the region, Adrienne has worked as a senior consultant for leadership trainings from 2013 – 2015 with many governmental bodies, such as DEWA, SEWA, Ministry of Higher Education, ADM and Ministry of Labour, KSA.
Finally, she is also a recipient of the Sheikh Hamdan Award for Excellence in 2014.
This week our guest is a scientist & urban planner who has been working on the Sustainability aspect of projects such as the Abu Dhabi Capital Plan 2030, The Sharjah Strategic Plan 2040 and the Dubai Expo 2020 bid. Huda Shaka is a Dubai-kid who returned to the city after studying abroad and achieving her Masters in Urban Planning. She is now an Associate Director with ARUP, a multinational professional services firm which provides engineering, design, planning, project management and consulting services for all aspects of the built environment.
This week, we're joined by Sian Rowlands, Owner & Chief Storyteller at Retold, about how her own wardrobe dilemma formed the basis of her business and how broken the fashion industry really is today. Retold is a boutique store in Dubai dealing exclusively in pre-owned fashion.
Part 2 of our talk with Monaem Ben Lellahom, Founding Partner & Group CEO of Sustainable Square. This episode discusses the _2018 State of CSR & Sustainability in the MENA Region_ report published by Sustainable Square earlier this year.
In case you haven't heard it yet, do check out Part 1 where we talk about how Sustainable Square got started and Monaem's outlook for the future of sustainability in our region.
Part 1 of our talk with Founder Partner & Group CEO of Sustainable Square, Monaem Ben Lellahom about how they got started, and how he views the regional landscape of sustainability compared to CSR.
On Part 2, also available now, we discuss the 2018 State of Sustainability & CSR Report published by Sustainable Square earlier this year.
On this episode, we’re joined by Sabrin Rahman, Head of Sustainability at HSBC talking about her own journey & how the bank is looking to shape sustainability for the region.
This week, we’re joined by Anita Nouri, co-founder of Green Energy Solutions, discussing waste management and landfills, gas-to-energy benefits, transitioning to renewable energy and other sources of sustainable energy in the Middle East.
On this episode, we’re joined by Dana Liparts, co-founder of EcoCoast, a marine protection company about the work they’re doing to protect our coastlines & tackling plastic waste in the ocean at a large scale.
Last week, we published episode 10 and so we wanted to take you guys a little behind the scenes with Forward Talks. So on this special episode, we’re by joined by CSR of One, another podcast from the production house behind Forward Talks, Amaeya Media. Host of the show Courtney Brandt joins us to chat about what got us into podcasting, what the experience is like so far, and what we hope to achieve with the show. Also, as we move into the summer, we’ll be publishing every other Tuesday until September. See you on July 9 with a new guest!
A bonus episode with Luca Gagliardi, General Manager at PierChic, about the chefs who inspire him.
If you haven’t yet, you can check out Luca’s full episode where he talks about how PierChic addresses sustainability throughout their operations in your podcast player, or on the web here.
This week, we’re talking with Luca Gagliardi, General Manager at PierChic, one of Dubai’s most iconic restaurants, on how he started out as a sommerlier in Italy, and how PierChic’s incorporates sustainability into their operations.
This week, we talk to Jeremy Crane, founder of Yellow Door Energy, about solar energy in the region, their operating model and how they are growing towards their 300 megawatts solar capacity target by 2020.
Oceans flow over nearly three-quarters of Earth, carry 97% of its water, and produce 70% of our oxygen. For every 10 breaths we take, seven of them come from the ocean. It is the true lifeblood of our planet.
To help us understand what is being done to help protect our oceans, we’re joined this week by Paul Holthus, Founding President & CEO of the World Ocean Council.
Thanks to our partners OurSpace for their support.
This week, we chat with Elena Kinane, founder of Greenheart Farms on the importance of ‘clean food’ and how to grow it. She also shares their expansion plans into other sustainable initiatives around their makeup and cleaning products.
We live in an era where social responsibility and profit are no longer disconnected. More and more companies are adopting sustainability as a way of doing good while making a profit. One such company is Neutral Fuels. This week, their founder & CEO Karl Feilder chats with us about their work to improve carbon footprint through recycling cooking oil into biodiesel. Karl also shares his thoughts on carbon prioritization-—what problems we must tackle first if we are to survive on our planet.
1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted every single year. For every person who is malnourished, there are two who are overweight or obese. How do you go about dealing with the growing food needs of the world and balancing that out with the continuing amount of waste generated? This week we’re talking to Ryan Ingram, founder of Terraloop about their solutions to commercially handle food waste in the country as well as educate people on reducing food waste at source.
On this episode, we talk to Ayla Bajwa, founder of Ampuz and Board Member at the United National Global Compact UAE. Ayla shares her drive to measure the impact of sustainability which led her to found Ampuz and the current challenges faced in operationalizing the UNGA Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
This week, we talk to Alex Malhouf, Corporate Communications Manager at Procter & Gamble and a fellow podcaster. Alex shares his thoughts on how P&G views sustainability as being a collective responsibility, and how they’re doing more to educate as well as designing products to make it easier for consumers to do the right thing for the environment.
This week, we talk to Kamelia Zaal, the first Arab landscape designer to participate at the Chelsea flower show and best known for her landscape design at Al Barari. Kamelia shares numerous sustainability initiatives taken up at Al Barari—the greens, the water and the waste, how she hopes to redefine play areas in the region and her tips on improving sustainability in the UAE.
Welcome to Forward Talks, a new podcast by Goumbook, bringing you weekly conversations with leaders & professionals who, through their work, entrepreneurship & commitment, promote positive impact and sustainability in the UAE and beyond. On our inaugural episode, we talk to Stefanie Schachtschabel, founder of Globally Connected Companies: Stefanie pivoted her media company in 2014 to focus on sustainability and has since launched a video platform to serve all sustainable innovations in our region.
We look forward to bringing you conversations with sustainability changemakers in April 2019.