Are sustainable SMEs the solution to climate change?

Dubai - SMEs account for more than 94% of businesses operating in the UAE

Sustainability as a corporate responsibility may have started as an ad-hoc damage control response to environmental accidents by multinational corporations but is now evolving into a proactive, coherent global trend practiced by businesses of all sizes.
And pressure groups, climate change institutions, as well as government bodies that are actively seeking solutions to climate change are working to encourage that culture - where businesses of all sizes transition towards a greener approach in their operations.
The UAE ratified the Paris Agreement in December 2015 pledging not just to keep warming "well below two degrees Celsius" but also to "pursue efforts" to limit warming to 1.5 degrees C by 2018 and one of the way it aims to do so is through 'strengthening education, empowerment and engagement of stakeholders'.
SMEs account for more than 94 per cent of the businesses operating in the UAE and contribute to 86 per cent of the total workforce in the UAE, making a culture where SMEs and their workforce recognize the severity of the need to take action for climate justice and the financial benefits that come with it absolutely vital to influence change.
Through events like Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, Ta'atheer and the likes, public discourses on environmental protection are becoming more frequent and, slowly but surely, SMEs in the UAE are catching up with the trend that there is profitability in sustainability.
Sharjah-based Papers Worldwide now distributes "carbon-neutral, chlorine- and acid-free" stationery. The Organic Glow salon in Dubai claims to be committed to sustainability in all its practices - all the way down to eco-friendly interiors. Wild and the Moon Café in Dubai's Al Serkal Avenue "uses local suppliers, biodegradable packaging, and strive for 0 per cent waste - revitalising, for example, the pulp from juices and leftover nuts into crackers".
Aglaia Ntili, managing director of Sustainability Knowledge Group, thinks that businesses are now starting to realize how important it is becoming to consumers - especially of the younger demographics - that the core values of companies they engage with align with their own.
A study carried out in October 2016 by YouGov, an international Internet-based market research firm, shows that the effect of global warming is currently one of the main concerns amongst youth in the GCC.
The survey revealed that 92 per cent of the respondents, between ages 18 to 29, see global warming as a bigger threat today than it was 20 years ago while half of those believe that it is important that businesses take actions to protect the environment.
Ntili believes that businesses that are actively stepping up on the issue can gain immense brand value and a competitive advantage, regardless of the industry they are operating in.
"It is not just additional marketing opportunities that sustainability brings to a business - it is about solid business practices and refers to ways to create value based on a model of people-planet-profit," she added.
Ntili currently coaches businesses on understanding how to incorporate sustainability in ways that bring financial and other benefits to them.
For instance, smaller companies making an active effort in being greener by implementing greener changes in their offices or through taking part in sustainability training workshops foster "a culture of teamwork, collaboration, and continuous improvement" explained Ntili.

It also allows companies to potentially attract and retain young employees - 56 per cent of the respondents of the YouGov survey also indicated that contributing to the fight against global warming as a career goal and a factor in their choice of profession.
Larger corporations that are seeking to reduce their carbon print or seeking environmentally friendlier practices are also incentivizing and investing in sustainable supply chain SMEs that produce with less, remanufacture more, and are setting the stage for evolution towards a more circular economy.
Greenshine, for example, is a Dubai based transport vehicle cleaning service that uses biodegradable organic products instead of water in its process.
They most recently signed a contract with a local supplier to the JW Marriot Hotel and in the talks with other businesses, many of which are part of supply chain of larger companies trying to incorporate conservation in their operations.
"A lot of the larger companies are working really hard to be sustainable but they can't claim to be so if their suppliers aren't," said Elizabeth Kuruvilla, Greenshine's founder.
"These companies can't just tell their suppliers to be more sustainable - they assist, advice, and even offer some kind of financial assistance."
Rabiya Shabeeh is a freelance writer based in Dubai. Views expressed are her own and do not reflect the newspaper's policy.