Heroes of the environment

Oman Green Awards honoured companies and individuals who are driven by a simple notion – We can all make a difference. Mayank Singh and Visvas Paul D Karra report

The first National Environment Awards – Oman Green Awards held at Shangri-La’s Barr Al Jissah Resort & Spa on June 12, 2010 proved to be a memorable affair. The venue was turned into a veritable green enclave with over 200 plants on display, inspired rockery and an artificial waterfall. The lighting and music added to the ambience.

While the atmosphere may have been surreal, the seriousness of issue at hand was not lost on anyone. Business leaders and senior government officials had gathered to honour companies, institutions and individuals who had shown remarkable environmental initiative. In his inaugural address Sandeep Sehgal, Chief Executive, UMS called upon everyone to contribute their mite to the environment. Lamees Daar, Executive Director, Environment Society of Oman, focussed on the imminent threat to the environment and asked companies to look at saving the environment as a part of their corporate social responsibility.

The Guest of Honour, HE Sayyid Hamood bin Faisal al Busaidi, the Honourable Minister of Environment and Climate Affairs and HH Sayyid Tarik bin Shabib al Said, Editor-in-Chief, Oman Economic Review handed over the awards to the winners.

The complete work of the winners of Oman Green Awards can be seen on omangreenawards.com. Oman Green Awards was held in association with the Ministry of Environment; the Ministry of Health – Department of Environment and Occupational Health; Muscat Municipality; and the Environment Society of Oman. Bahwan Engineering Company-Carrier, Voltamp, V-Kool Oman, Oman Oil Marketing Company, MB Holding Company, Panasonic and the Shangri-La’s Barr Al Jissah Resort & Spa were Green Oman partners. Majan Electricity Company, Proscape Al Ansari, Business International Group and Oman Printers and Stationers were support partners while Times of Oman, Al Shabiba and Oil and Gas Review were the media partners.

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Simple and clean

Haya Water’s campaign conveyed the intended message about a healthier, cleaner and greener tomorrow

Haya Water launched one of the biggest awareness campaigns to preserve the environment and apply safety procedures at its work sites in 2010. The challenge for the company was to create awareness and correct perceptions in the minds of people about Haya Water’s activities and to let them know about the great efforts being made by the company for the benefit of the residents and visitors of the Muscat governorate. The strategic approach adapted, given the objective was to create awareness about the benefits of the brands. The campaign was supposed to set the tone for communications targeting specific locations where the laying of pipelines for a greener future were being laid and educating the audience about the real time benefits.

A metaphor
All of this was made possible through an integrated communication approach with a mix of above the line, below the line and social media platforms which reinforced the message. The ongoing advertising campaign aims to change the mindsets and position of Haya Water as the harbinger and enabler of a sustainable future.

Communication was designed to be simple, clean and easy to comprehend. This was in view of the diversity of the target audience. The clean layouts extended the company’s healthy, clean and green cause. The underlying theme of the entire campaign was ‘Green’. Green for a greener and cleaner Muscat which was ‘eco-friendly.’

The campaign addressed people across age, gender and nationality in Muscat. It was an integrated one making use of different mediums and multiple messages. The immediate response was an increased level of awareness about the brand Haya Water and a correct interpretation of its activities and services.

The most tangible proof of the success of the campaign is the growing fan base of Haya Water (group) on social networking site Facebook. The medium is now also a platform allowing the brand and its target audience to interact constantly. The campaign has increasingly seen support and appreciation from well wishes.

The Muscat wastewater project is one of the biggest environmental projects in Oman. In this project sewage water is converted from materials that cause harm to the environment into environment friendly products. Within this project, sewage networks, water treatment plants and TE networks for distributing the treated water used for irrigation, gardening and other usages are carried out. This is in addition to constructing a plant for converting solid wastes resulting from the sewage treatment into organic fertilisers.

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Leaving a legacy

MABGOC is using the Asian Beach Games as an opportunity to promote environmental issues through the use of mascots

In December 2010 the Sultanate will welcome athletes from 45 countries across Asia to compete at the 2nd Asian Beach Games Muscat 2010. The Muscat Asian Beach Games Organising Committee (MABGOC) has launched the Muscat 2010 Mascots - Al-Jebel (Tahr), Al-Med (Green Turtle), and Al-Reeh (Houbara) representing the sky, land and sea in Oman respectively. The effort is to promote the natural beauty of Oman to the countries and regions attending the beach games and to highlight the importance of protecting and conserving these animals and their habitats for future generations.

Out of the box
An innovative method was crafted to address ‘real issues’ through a fictional platform. On October 31, 2009, MABGOC presented the mascot concept to the Olympic Council of Asia’s (OCA) executive board at the 55th OCA executive board meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam. The executive board approved the concept and the initial steps in this direction have been taken by creating visuals ‘drawings’ of the mascots.

Over the coming months MABGOC will distribute material and information on the ideals of the mascots. Children’s storybook will be launched prior to the Games, and ‘real life mascots’ (ie costumed mascots) will be available for community activities/events and photo opportunities with the public. The Muscat 2010 website will soon provide a Mascots section providing further details about these three friends. The mascots will spread their message both in English and Arabic within Oman and across Asia. The mascot story and messages will highlight the importance of these animals within the Sultanate and the natural settings in which they are found.

The MABGOC has been the first Games under the Olympic Council of Asia to dedicate its mascots to the protection of the environment. ‘Environment’ is one of the most important theme globally in the 21st century for sustainable development and coexistence, and the OCA is working to deliver this message to the 45 National Olympic Committees (NOC) across Asia. Amongst other activities, the OCA has created a new initiative to recognise the efforts and achievements of its 45 NOCs in tackling environmental issues, and the Oman Olympic Council saw an opportunity to highlight the importance of environmental protection during Muscat 2010.

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Preservation Programme

Six Senses Hideaway Zighy Bay uses a range of environmental and social initiatives to further the cause of sustainable development

The core purpose of Six Senses Resorts & Spas is to ‘create innovative and enlightening experiences’ that rejuvenate its guest’s love of ‘Slow Life’ (Sustainable-Local-Organic-Wholesome Learning- Inspiring- Fun-Experiences). Six Senses Hideaway Zighy Bay recognises that its operations affect the surroundings and the resort is committed to improve its ecological and carbon footprint and to give back to the community.

At the heart of the resort’s responsible practices is the implementation of an Environmental Management System based on the Six Senses Holistic Environmental Programme and Green Globe, designed to continuously improve its performance and to benchmark efforts. Through this the resort strives to ensure that it improves its ecological and carbon footprint through raising environmental awareness into the day to day lives of hosts, guests and the local community. One of the ways in which the resort contributes to sustainable development of the region is through the Social and Environmental Responsibility Fund where 0.5 per cent of the resort’s total revenue goes towards both environmental and community projects in Zighy Bay, the Musandam region and the rest of the Sultanate of Oman.

Environmental projects
The Six Senses Holistic Environmental Management Programme (HEMP) focuses on improving the ecological and carbon footprint of Six Senses operation. HEMP sets out the principles, guidelines and standards for responsible operation and constitutes the framework of Six Senses Hideaway Zighy Bay’s Environmental Management system.

The sustainability policy is the resort’s guiding document and Green Team meetings ensure frequent and regular follow-ups of environmental issues in all departments. Like all Six Senses Resorts, Six Senses Hideaway Zighy Bay follows the Green Globe Company Standard, an international sustainability certification scheme for hotels, resorts and spas. The task during the first year is to set up a functioning environmental management system and to collect data of water and energy consumption, waste generation, paper use, chemical and pesticides use, and social commitment. Once the resort is Green Globe benchmarked the performance of the second year is compared to that of the first year in each of the respective areas. The resort will then have the benchmarking results audited to achieve Green Globe Certified status.

Design for the Environment
During the design and construction of Six Senses Hideaway Zighy Bay, care was taken to design the resort according to the traditional Omani style. The use of natural material, naturally ventilated areas and shaded areas to minimise the need for air-conditioning and lighting, reduces the resort’s need for energy. An outdoor Omani summer house has been re-created for guest use and is made from Jareed (date palms) that have been in twined in the traditional way allowing the temperature inside to drop a few degrees for comfort.

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Financing green projects

BankMuscat has taken the lead in subscribing to international best practices in the field of environment protection

BankMuscat has adopted the ‘Equator Principles’, a set of globally recognised, voluntary guidelines established to assess and manage social and environmental risk in project financing, especially in emerging markets. The goal of the project is to ensure that BankMuscat finances projects that are developed in a socially responsible manner. The bank keeps a track of the projects financed through the concerned department to ensure that they are in line with the Equator Principles. The bank reports back every two year to the Equator Principles.

The bank has also joined the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP-FI), which is a unique global partnership between the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the global private financial sector.

First amongst peers
BankMuscat is the first bank in the Middle East region to adopt the ‘Equator Principles’ and join the UNEP-FI thus becoming a role model in preserving the environment and adhering to best practices. The bank is committed to financing environment-friendly projects for life.

Internally, the bank is promoting environment friendly practices among its employees. For example, it recycles waste paper produced by various departments in BankMuscat’s head office building. To make the process more scientific, it tracks the amount of paper collected and sent for recycling. Between May to Oct 2009, the bank saved 17 trees through recycling around 1,975 kgs of waste paper. Paper recycling is an ongoing project whose operations are managed by the support services department of BankMuscat. The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)team will keep encouraging employees through internal communications via e-mails and presentations on the importance of saving paper, water and electricity.

The bank is encouraging employees and their families to reduce wastage of water and electricity. Office utility bills are tracked in an effort to minimise waste. Calico bags are used for collecting waste paper instead of plastic ones. The bank’s CSR team visits employees at the head office giving them presentations on green tips along with distributing green gifts.

As a result of these measures employees of BankMuscat are (and will be) more aware about the best practices related to the environment. These measures will also help the bank to reduce spends both internally and externally. A leader in the financial sector, the bank is demonstrating its CSR credentials with these socially responsive measures.

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Barren to blissful

Al Nahda Resort & Spa has used a combination of art and science to create beauty and environment sustainability


The project started as early as 1987 with the purchase of 10 acres of land and over the last 22 years the resort has gone on to develop 350 acres of acres of barren land into lime plantations, green houses and nurseries, resort, spa, rainforest restaurant, rose, solar and jojoba gardens and agricultural lands which include banana plantains, sugar cane, vegetable and natural foliage waste areas for compost development. Says Stephen Hatton, general manager, Al Nahda, “We have combined natural science and art to create gardens and greenery which are beautiful, culturally rich and eco-sustainable.”

Multiple benefits
The effort of the resort is to create major landscape changes which provide recreational, agricultural, horticultural and nature reserves for the benefit of the local community which operate within a green area protection plan and improved eco-sustainable practice over a total land area of 350 acres.

The resort uses a variety of innovative methods to apply and promote sustainable design. The talented design team worked together to develop various ideas such as use of gray water, organic management of the gardens, transitioning from little to no synthetic pesticide and composting of dead foliage for use as fertiliser. The reduction of the usage of water and its conservation has been achieved through water-efficient landscaping or Xeriscaping. The process is one of the biggest reasons that ensures the sustainability and viability of the resorts plantations. Resource efficient landscapes are the way forward for truly effective continuity.

Plants that are drought-resistant and indigenous to a region’s soil and climate conditions can survive and thrive, generally with less care or water. The use of native plants is also environmentally preferable because they are more resistant to pests and disease, thus requiring less fertilisers and pesticides. Long-lived, hardy vegetation can lower labour costs and reduce spending on maintenance supplies.

Grand vision
Says Hatton, “We are all inspired by the vastness of our company’s endeavours and have adopted a re-use, re-buy, re-cycle and reduce mentality.” The 22 year dedicated programme shows incredible fortitude and persistence from the Al Bhaja Group, which owns Al Nahda. The group has demonstrated environmental change over 350 acres of previous barren lands.

The development has led to a number of benefits for the local community like the creation of new job opportunities, cost, waste and energy efficiency, improved air quality, reduction of harm to the environment, providing habitat to wildlife and healthier places to work in and a place where people can come with their families to for recreation purposes. Positive changes like the one created by Al Nahda makes a difference and creates benefits both for the short and long term. The resort is a living example of how human efforts can contribute towards a greener world.

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An early start

Gardening World is looking at inculcating environment awareness amongst school going children

Catch them young seems to be the motto of Gardening World Oman. The company is working on creating eco friendly redevelopment of schools grounds in the Sultanate. The company aims at involving children at every level to understand the importance of saving the environment.

Says Ali al-Abdullatif, managing director, Gardening World, “The project started with the desire to demonstrate that everyone can play a part in helping the environment if they have an understanding that it is about what we do on a daily basis and how plants can play a significant part in environment preservation.”

Flora and fauna
Located in Ghala as a part of the project, Ali has had two sessions with the children, the first to show them the importance of saving a native tree and secondly educating them on how to prepare a tree to be moved from one location to another. The project design has also included many native, near native and traditional plants which require less water naturally.

Once the children had gone through this theoretical exercise, they pruned the tree themselves and did the work to prepare the tree to be moved. Each child and the teachers had a part to play and they learnt the process first hand.

Gardening World is an ongoing project which will involve children from all nationalities. A number of these students have motivated others to contribute to a greener Oman. “The key phrase we have applied in our business plan and business card is the slogan, ‘The pioneers of Eco landscaping’ foresight and persistence,” says Ali.

Long term goal
The company has started to propagate native plants and plans to develop this further to a fully fledged Omani native plant nursery with plants for sale as well as for projects. Each plant will have a write up on the significance, origin and benefits to the environment.

Gardening World is looking at saving plants in perpetuity that are naturally being destroyed by the rapid growth and urban development in Oman. Once people are more aware, they will be more receptive towards landscape projects. This will ultimately reduce the amount of water used to keep Oman as beautiful as it is and will sustain the ecology and preserve the flora and fauna. The company has a long term vision and its efforts and work is sure to help in preserving the environment in Oman.

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Holistic approach

Al Sodah Island project hopes to be a pioneer in the field of environmental protection in the Sultanate in a few years

Al Sodah Island a project being developed by Muriya Tourism is designed as an ‘ecolodge development’ to meet the principles of eco-tourism (a nature dependent tourist facility) in Oman. Located 32 kms from the mainland of Dhofar it is designed to meet the equator principals of eco tourism, by developing a project and charting a path towards sustainability and environmental protection.

The project endeavours to maximise the use of natural light through design. Environment friendly lighting principles are being be used to limit turtle attraction. Low density building and infrastructure design will minimises adverse environmental impact. An in- depth Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study has been conducted by a leading environmental consultant and the recommendations of the study are being used. Muriya is doing a management of environmental impact through preparation and implementation of an Environmental Management Plan (EMP) following ISO 14000 protocols. Site selection and design has been done to avoid native vegetation and to protect threatened species, populations and ecologically sensitive areas such as turtle nesting beaches.

To ensure periodic environmental monitoring, a specialist environmental consultant carries out an on-site quarterly review. The project will maintain the abundance, species and geographic diversity of corals and marine turtles. All wastes will be removed off-island. Pests (brown rats) that feed on breeding bird colony eggs will be eradicated and regular beach clean-ups will be undertaken.

Success principles
The project planning and design is largely based on nature dependent tourism principles. Monitoring and regular internal audits have been conducted to modify work practices and improve environmental outcomes. An EIA has been prepared to ensure all the adverse environmental impacts are mitigated and in progress for a EMP roll out. The Marine Turtle Management strategy has been initiated for proactive protection of these species on the island. Floating jetties to prevent any adverse impacts on the coral reefs are being designed and implemented. The ideas and strategies were chosen after a rigorous site Environment Health and Safety (EHS) compliance and extreme environmental site vigilance by the site EHS staff, innovative design team and the concerned departmentt.

Says Muthu Govindraj, Corporate HSE director, Muriya Tourism, “The project is unique and will lead by example as an eco friendly tourist destination in Oman and finally with the use of alternative energy sources technology it is anticipated to be the most green island project in Oman.”

The project is in line with Murya’s core philosophy of light construction and having 70 per cent as free and open areas. In the long term, Al Sodah hopes to be the most effective eco friendly habitat in Oman with significant nature dependence and with very low contribution to global warming.

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A clean slate

National Pharmaceutical Industries Company’s premises at the Rusayl Industrial Estate is a model for others to follow

National Pharmaceutical Industries Company (NPI) located at the Rusayl Industrial Estate has built a state of the art pharmaceutical formulation facility to create an environment friendly and healthy work place. The effort is to purity incoming and outgoing air and water and to conserve water while at the same time keeping the area green.

Except for the area where the building has been constructed all the other open land over the 30,042 sq mtrs plot has been covered with lawn and trees. The quality of air in the plant is monitored constantly to ensure that the factory complies to class 100,000 specifications. Water is purified constantly through a regular filtration process as well as through a double reverse osmosis plant. The well controlled Environment Health Practioners (ETP) ensures effective waste management. Good Management Practices (GMP) training is conducted for the staff to educate them on various topics like cross contamination, good housekeeping and personal hygiene.

Innovation and creativity
To ensure a healthy work place all the air is filtered through high efficiency particulate air filter with controlled humidity and temperature ( 25 degrees +/- 2% & 45 % RH +/- 10%) of 0.22 microns. Air filtration or air expelled to environment from all the 35 air handling units is clean as it is filtered through very fine filter that captures particles of more than five microns. Drinking water is purified and distributed as an in house supply avoiding the accumulation of plastic containers. Water for all industrial use is purified in house as a first step, the industrial used water is treated and analysed as per Oman Environmental Regulation and then used for irrigation of the green part of the site. The size of green land on the factory is 20 per cent as compared to the total site area (40 per cent when compared to open land) with five palm trees and other flowery trees. All sanitary waste water outlets are connected to the underground Al Rusayl Industrial Estate System for treatment outside the plant.

NPI is minimising the use of paper through the application of an internal communication network. It has a Central Industrial Vacuum System for cleaning the whole plant. The dust collected in this system is not released into the atmosphere but is treated and dissolved in water. It is then released into the ETP where the same is treated and then released. NPI has demonstrated its concern for preserving this scarce resource by utilising the waste water (duly treated) to maintain its greenery (consistently over the past 10 years) thereby serving the dual purposes of greenery and water conservation. It extends this training to students from other colleges in Oman every year. NPI is committed to providing a very healthy and green habitat for its employees
and visitors.

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COOLING EFFECT

BEC-Carrier is working on reducing electricity consumption by air-conditioning systems in various buildings in Oman

Bahwan Engineering Company – Carrier (BEC-Carrier) has been promoting environmentally sound cooling solutions amongst various buildings in Oman. This is being achieved through the promotion of Energy Efficient Carrier 30XA chillers. The chillers result in lower electric energy consumption as compared to other similar chillers in the market. The installation of such chillers has led to an annual saving of electric energy to the tune of 22.9 million KwH.

Knowledge drive
BEC-Carrier has been spreading knowledge about its energy efficient products through technical seminars, factory visits, one-to-one discussions with consulting engineers and building owners. As a result of these efforts a number of companies, institutions and owners have installed and benefitted from such solutions. Says a company spokesperson, “A number of consulting engineers, building owners are more aware about the benefits of using energy efficient products and have started insisting on using such products for their projects.”

Globally, Carrier’s competitors are striving to manufacture products which match Carrier 30XA chillers in energy efficiency, but the company remains a leader by a stretch. With the relatively low cost and adequate availability of electric energy in the Sultanate, the need for having energy efficient systems was not felt for a long time. BEC was the first company in the country to start spreading awareness about the benefits of energy saving products in partnership with global leaders such as Carrier, Bry Air, SPC, Ruks etc. It is the result of such persistent efforts that more and more buildings are now being built with the attendant environmental impact in mind.

Every building in Oman will continue to require cooling (Air-conditioning). Air-conditioning systems are a major user of electric energy in any building and the use of energy efficient air-conditioning products and systems is thus a very sustainable initiative for the future.

The focus on improving energy efficiency of air-conditioning products/systems and the use of innovative methods to reduce power consumption of air conditioning system can only further improve the situation in the long run. The company sees its efforts as being a mere beginning of an awareness effort towards the need for energy conservation in buildings – this awareness will, in the long term, result in design and construction of buildings which are more energy efficient.

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Reduce reuse recycle

Cartridge World is proving its commitment to the triple bottom line - meeting social, environmental and economic standards

Cartridge World has successfully completed more than four years of its operations in the Sultanate of Oman. Its business model helps companies to save money by recycling their printer cartridges. The company has a manufacturing unit for recycling laser toner cartridges and a warehouse in Ruwi to serve its large client base. It’s customers include ministries, banks, real estate and construction companies, embassies, private colleges, power companies, finance companies, investment and securities companies, home users etc.

Printer cartridges are one of the leading contributors of contamination and runoff in a nation’s landfills. Cartridge World is committed to the highest environmental standards in its own right, seeking to minimise material waste, through recycling. The company has been at the forefront of cultivating a habit for recycling by collecting tonnes of electronic waste for proper recycling.

Omani first
It’s laser products are locally re-manufactured and are 100 per cent guaranteed within the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) stated warranty. Based on the service cycle, the appropriate parts are replaced with new parts. Great care is taken to ensure proper assembly and 100 per cent test prints prior to delivery. The company has tied up with PEIE (Public Establishment of Industrial Estates) Rusayl to use the Omani logo, since the Cartridges are remanufactured locally in Oman. In brief, Origin Oman products offers every Oman based resident an opportunity to help promote the Sultanate’s products and services and by doing so helps create employment opportunities, stimulates the national economy and reduces carbon emissions. Remanufacturing cartridges locally supports the local community by creating more job opportunities.

Cartridge World has been successful in placing recycling bins and encouraged recycling habits. It provides printing tips for an environment friendly office and has been propagating recycling habits by placing advertisements in leading newspapers and magazines thereby lessening the amount of cartridges ending up in the landfills of Oman.

Cartridge World provides a programme to help customers easily identify issues, products and services with the environment in mind. It is focusing on the importance of recycling as it is not only beneficial for the earth but also for businesses as the latter can secure a better relationship with their consumers by showcasing their environment efforts. As recycling reduces production costs it proves to be economical for consumers. Cartridge World and its customers are working together for making a difference to the earth’s health. Recycling along with reducing consumption is our best means to counter the damage to the Environment of Oman and Cartridge World is throwing its weight behind this cause.

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Saving Mother Earth

Making everyday an Earth Day is the clarion call given by the students of Indian School Nizwa. Now it’s time for others to join in

Indian School Nizwa’s (ISN) Green Clean Earth campaign endeavours to make the earth a better place to live in for us and the future generations. The goal of the campaign include making Oman a plastic free zone. As a start the school has made its campus plastic free. The students are also creating awareness about harmful BT products and their consequences.

Making a difference
ISN celebrated Earth Day on April 22, 2010. The theme for this year’s Earth Day celebration was – ‘Make each day an Earth Day’. Posters, charts and models were placed all around the school to promote awareness among students about earth day; a special assembly was conducted by the students of class 12.

During the assembly, important thoughts and ideas were conveyed about Earth Day. The seniors also shared tips to save nature and on how to reduce the depletion of resources. Facts and statistics related to earth helped the students to realise how human efforts were damaging the planet. The principal then spoke about Earth Day highlighting the agenda that the students should follow.

An Earth Day oath was taken where the students swore that they would strive to protect the earth, they live in. The celebration went on as students of senior classes spread the message of mother earth through effective speeches. Later on students from class 11 presented videos and powerpoint presentations related to Earth Day to junior classes which made students aware of the potential danger that could follow if no one cared for earth. Students circulated brochures informing students and parents about the harmful effects of BT products during the school event. Shopkeepers in vicinity of the school agreed not to sell harmful BT products. Students pledged to plant trees in the school’s neighbourhood and to reduce the use of plastics and polythene bags. H E Anil Wadhwa, ambassador, Republic of India to Oman appreciated the schools efforts in promoting environment protection.

The students are confident that through their selfless commitment and dedication, they will achieve their goals. By educating the future generations the school is increasing the chances of having a green earth and living on a smarter planet. The spark ignited by the school is sure to snowball into a blaze in the years to come.

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Creating role models

The ABA School’s community-wide environmental initiatives has given a green hue to the education process

The ABA School’s wide ranging initiatives that challenge and promote change by highlighting common, environmentally unfriendly practices has to a large extent ingrained in the student community the message that individuals can make a difference.

The school looked at continuity and sustainability as one of the guiding principles by providing opportunities and incentives to the students themselves to lead the charge in order to bring about a change in daily practices. Further, in deciding which initiatives to pursue and which to leave for later, ABA looked at cost effectiveness, impact, visibility and sustainability.

For example, the composting project was the work of students where the idea was to compost as much of the school’s waste as possible and use as little from outside as possible. ‘Energy’ monitors were appointed in each of the junior classes. These students monitored a variety of activities including turning off lights and computer monitors when they leave the room.

The school is also inculcating responsibility by initiating a ‘don’t walk by’ campaign for everyone who enters the campus; forming a student group for preparing and planting native plant areas; and assigning the students to write an ‘green’ article every week for the school’s newsletter.

Small but promising start
Says Terry Storer, examinations officer, ABA, “This is a team project that is supported by all members of the school including the administration, teachers, students and parents. We have been running with this for about 18 months now. From, what seemed to be a very humble beginning with small goals, the number and range of projects and people involved continues to grow as the relevance, scope and impact is seen and felt.”
ABA feels that they are dealing with students who will, in many cases, go on to become major decision and policy makers of the future. Any role modelling and sensitisation they can achieve will have a ripple effect that is hard to quantify.

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Effective communication

Pravin Amudan would like to translate words into action and actually get people to adopt an eco-friendly stance in their daily lives

Global warming is such an oft-repeated term that, somewhere along the line, people have stopped relating to it. Therefore, Pravin Amudan’s desire was to translate words into action and that came about in the form of “The Little Green Guide”, a bilingual (English and Arabic) booklet with over 70 easy and practical tips to help counter the global warming phenomenon.

The first print-run of this guide was 2000 copies and was backed by a host of related environment-friendly activities and got wide coverage in all the media.

“The idea of this ‘tips-book’ is to drive home the fact that each one of us can make a positive difference to the environment by taking small, simple steps. For example, it could be as simple as changing one 60-Watt light bulb to a CFC,” says Pravin Amudan.

To further his initiative, Amudan also created a blog (www.thelittlegreenpage.blogspot.com) where people can post their comments, share their ideas and download the online version of the book to spread the word. A dedicated email address (thelittlegreenguide@yahoo.com) has also been created for enquiries and feedback.

Join the movement
Besides the booklet and the blog, Amudan also initiated a recycling drive (paper and plastics) in his workplace of DDB Oman, which is part of the OHI group; and in his neighbourhood on a monthly basis with the support of the Environment Society of Oman (ESO). Over the last two years, around 2.5 tons of paper has been recycled within his office and he believes that this is just the beginning.

Taking his environment campaign a step further, Amudan also began to advocate eco-friendly initiatives among a number of DDB clients in Oman.

For example, the 2009 calendar with the global warming theme by Towell Auto Centre, the dealers for Mazda in Oman was inspired by him. Secondly, the ‘Work Environments and the Environment’ booklet for Mustafa Sultan Office Technology, which was distributed at the launch of Kyocera eco-friendly printers in 2008, was conceived by him. In addition, an internal ambient media campaign targeting the employees of DDB and encouraging the responsible use of hand tissues in the washrooms was launched at his behest. Each of these initiatives required dedication and commitment, when faced with the arduous task of reminding people, following up for permissions and executing projects. The fact that Amudan’s efforts, however small they might have been, have inspired people to change is his greatest reward.

Adds Amudan, “Each time I see a colleague or a friend contribute towards this initiative, I consider it a measure of my success. If I can influence even a handful of people to think twice about wasting natural resources, I will feel my attempt has been worthwhile.”

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Youth leader

For a college student, Ojas Bhatia’s single-handed efforts to raise green awareness is estimable

The students of Majan College led by Ojas Bhatia have been in the forefront of not only spreading environmental awareness but are also in the process of manufacturing clean energy devices for sustainable development.

Says Bhatia, “As students we have discussed about solutions that can be implemented in Oman at a very low cost and can help a lot of people. For example, Dean Kamen (another student) has made a device which can take any source of water filled with pollutants and can change it to pure drinking water. The device costs around RO400 and can help provide water for over 500 people. We are in talks with the company to deploy this system in the interior of Oman.”

Bhatia says that as an individual, he is trying to spread the message about the environment among the youth by holding discussions and debates about the results of global warming and how clean energies can be deployed worldwide.

“Our aim is to bring about awareness on environment preservation and sustainable development by talking about solutions that are best suited for the environment and debate about carbon trading,” Bhatia adds.

Spreading awareness
He wants to ensure that apart from Omanis, the topics related to environment should also reach the GCC youth through regional environmental debates and spread the message using the media like newspapers and radio.

In 2008, Bhatia won the All Gulf inter-college environmental debate. In 2009, he was chosen by Muscat Municipality to spread awareness among students during the environmental week. Now in 2010, he has been chosen to go to the Youth Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York. This speaks volumes about his vision, foresight and persistence.

As a role model, Bhatia has inspired other youth to take keen interest in participating in the environmental activities and he continues to inspire his fellow students.

Since it is the youth that is going to be leading the green efforts in the future, their empowerment is necessary. They are the ones who will come up with innovative solutions that are going to benefit the world, Bhatia believes.

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Backyard success

Crowne Plaza Sohar has developed a mouth-watering way to motivate people to take the environment-friendly route

Crowne Plaza Sohar gave a new lease of life to the word ‘garden-fresh’ literally with a backyard full of freshly sprouting herbs and vegetables. It was little wonder then that it won the ‘Green Innovation Award’ at the Oman Green Awards.

The hotel introduced a separate corner at the buffet table for food cooked from naturally grown vegetables and herbs as a choice and preference for the guests. And the management says that it has been the delight of the hotel guests to have freshly plucked, safe and fully organic vegetables for their salads and vegetable dishes.

Jann Nasri Bahdousheh, purchasing manager and environment projects leader says, “we initiated the ‘Organic Garden Project – 001’ to grow fresh vegetables and herbs as an environmentally safe project in order to place full organic cooked food on our buffet table.”

Talking about the benefits of this move, Bahdousheh says this project has an impact on the quality of food, service and guests’ satisfaction scores. He also points out that the hotel is more interested in becoming environment-friendly more than any financial gains from the project, which in any case are very negligible in the beginning.

Green message
In order to propagate and promote this project, the hotel designed and printed awareness posters and created educational packages and organised small talk shows for guests, management and staff.

The Organic Garden project became a great motivator for everyone to contribute to a greener Oman as the hotel made efforts to achieve the Hotel Wheel Goal with a responsible business term known as ‘Green Engage’.

The aim of this Green Engage is to ensure continuity and sustainability of the Organic Green project and make it an educational and awareness tool.

Green Engage will be used for different purposes namely, to give a choice to the hotel guests to use environment-friendly products; propagate the green culture amongst the hotel staff, and increase general environmental awareness among the local community.

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Green home

GoPoint Ta’meer has built Oman’s first green building with heat insulation, solar power and environment friendly techniques

Many clients have welcomed the initiative of GoPoint Ta’meer to implement green elements in their real estate projects. And one of the biggest real estate developer in Oman is considering using their system to build more than 250,000 m2 of buildings due to high-energy savings that the system offers.

“Since the beginning GoPoint Ta’meer’s client-based approach helped us to penetrate the market with seamless efforts, by considering the clients’ perspective. All GoPoint Ta’meer’s current and future projects will use EVG-3D system as standard system,” says Eyhab Al Hajj, managing director, GoPoint Ta’meer.

The secret of the success is the EVG-3D panel system – a foam-steel composite that creates a tightly sealed building envelope, making the home efficient and strong. Structurally, the goal is to build the house to withstand extreme weather with use of EVG-3D panels anchored to reinforced concrete foundations.

Inviting nature
By using alternative green and innovative construction system i.e. EVG-3D panels, the model home is designed to be open and welcoming, maximising natural light while minimising passive solar heating in the warm climate. It allows for natural ventilation and steady airflow, reducing the need for air conditioning and heating.

It has dark flooring, which reduces the shines in the afternoon light and white coloured walls to provide maximum lights reducing the need for artificial lighting during the day.

By demonstrating the actual result of its green initiative and the unforeseen benefits of the system, more green initiatives will be promoted via bundled services that GoPoint Ta’meer proposes to project owners. Along with lead consultants, GoPoint Ta’meer is working closely to introduce the concept of green housing in Oman.

“When we first started operations, our Chairman made an important comment saying, this is going to be the future of construction. We have since worked on this basis, and the message has been spreading to our clients, partners and suppliers. We however, believe this system will further increase its market attractiveness since we are planning to commission factories in Oman soon and thus provide even greater value for money,” says Al Hajj.

Requests have come from major developers in Oman to carry out a combined study in seeing the effect of building communities with this system. This is driven by the belief that such systems mean significantly less electrical consumption and thus a more environment-friendly solution.

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Reaping the roof

An SQU team tested the feasibility of having green roofs with a novel capillary siphoning irrigation system

A team from the department of Soil, Water, Agricultural Engineering (SWAE) of Sultan Qaboos University undertook an unique agriculture activity in which different types of small crops were cultivated in pots filled with three types of soil – coarse sand, recharge dam silt and soil from the SQU Agricultural Experimental Station plot.

The pots were placed in an open area of the roof of SQU buildings and water was diverted to the pots from containers through siphons made of used T-shirts, which were rolled and filled with soil. Siphoning flow rate, moisture content in the pots, hydrological parameters and the development of the plants were measured and monitored.

The team members of this project were Prof Anvar Kacimov, head of department; Jokha Al Issai, masters student; Muna Al Amri, lab supervisor; and Mohammed Al Balushi, senior technician from the SWAE department.

Feasibility of further greening of roofs of Omani houses and their passive thermal insulation was assessed. Pot modules at the extreme temperature and dryness of Omani climate proved to be efficient thermal insulators of the roof and suitable bio medium for plants.
It is a novel irrigation system with continuous (annually) irrigation without any scheduling and does not involve additional labour; and meets optimal crop-water requirements. The system also does not utilise any electrical energy and brings huge electricity savings as well because by cooling the roof, the use of air-conditioning is reduced.

Novel irrigation
Along with improving building thermal regimes and flood attenuation the collateral benefits are: Utilisation of otherwise idle roof space; cheap and simple subsidiary farming; direct roof-to-family supply of basic vegetables in urban households; recycling used family cloth and plastics; engaging urban family members in agricultural activities.

Daily-average temperature of the roof is shown to have reduced by 6-8 degrees in June with mid-day temperature peaks reduced by more than 20 degrees.

Several plants (ivy, sunflower, succulents and others) are shown to grow well on the roof when the maximum concrete/gravel temperature of the roof reaches more than 70 degrees.

The capillary siphoning of green roofs has been tried at SQU since 2001 and the siphons are mechanically robust. Water supply to the tanks is as sustainable as the house or building itself. Soil is less sustainable due to secondary salinisation but common leaching can be practised. Siphoned pots served as good buffers for regular regional rainfalls.

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The misty magic

Mitsubishi’s project is a perfect example of how nature can be utilised to undo the effects of a natural adversity in Dhofar

The Mist-Catcher Project for re-vegetation of the mountainous area in Dhofar is designed to combat desertification caused by over-grazing in the region. This will be done by transplanting indigenous plant species in affected areas and growing them by irrigation using water collected from mist by mist-catchers during the Khareef season, the June-August period when rain and mist settle on the hills and mountains of Dhofar.

The Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs (MECA) has commissioned this project in association with Mitsubishi Corporation (MC). Describing the project’s importance, Tomoo Shoji, senior manager, says, “At the plateau areas of mountainous areas in Dhofar, their original vegetations have been severely damaged by over-grazing by domestic animals for long time. This is a kind of typical desertification. This project is aimed at recovering the original rich vegetation in the areas to combat on-going desertification by transplanting indigenous plant species using water collected from mist by mist-catchers during Khareef.”

The facility was constructed and began to operate in June 2009. Even though Khareef 2009 was weak and with short period, the facility collected around 200 cubic metres of water. Nearly 250 seedlings of local plants were already transplanted at the end of August and the beginning of September 2009 and have been irrigated every three days consecutively during Khareef and every five days during the rest of the period. Once the trees grow and grow into forests, more water will be collected to grow more vegetation. This recovered vegetation will be able to supply water to the groundwater table enhancing fresh water resources in Dhofar.

As of April 2010, more than 80 per cent of the transplanted trees are surviving. The irrigation for these trees will be stopped during the current Khareef to see whether the trees stabilise and take deep root, enough to survive without irrigation. If they can survive until Khareef 2011, it can be said they will survive for good. According to the forestry standard worldwide, if the survival rate of transplanted trees is above 30 per cent, the activity is considered successful.

“In Dhofar, we can expect Khareef every year even though the duration is just two month and a half maximum, but we can call Khareef as a sustainable water resource that we can rely on every year. We are using the water captured for re-vegetation purposes,” says Shoji.

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Environment Powerhouse

AES Barka has implemented multiple initiatives to enhance environmental awareness and protect the environment

AES Barka is committed to conserving the environment while continuing to meet its goals of supplying clean and reliable power and water to the people of Oman. It has embraced environmental protection as one of the core values to conserve the environment and strives to improve itself continuously in conserving natural resources. The company strongly believes that excellence in management of environment is an essential element within its overall business.

“AES Barka has implemented a number of initiatives for protecting the environment taking note of the three R’s namely re-using, recycling, and reduction/ optimisation of energy consumption. Mitigating environmentally hazardous material usage and taking part in environmental conservation programmes showing that commitment is not limited to words, but it is being converted to action for conservation of the environment where we are living,” says Abdullah Al Nofli, Environment, Health and Safety team leader, AES Barka.

Sustainable projects
All the programmes, which AES Barka has initiated are ongoing projects, which have a positive impact on the environment. For instance, by the judicious use of power and water, the company has reduced internal energy consumption thereby helping to reduce power and steam generation ultimately bringing down the consumption of natural gas and cutting down on emissions. This has been done by plugging the leakage of steam and water from steam traps, sampling points etc. All the online and manual sampling points of water and steam, for instance, is an area where a lot of water was lost if the flow rates were kept at more than required. These sample points flow was monitored in every shift and adjusted as per the requirements in order to avoid wastage of water.

Plastic perils
AES Barka believes that one of the major threats for the next generation will be the health and environmental hazards of plastic. Through its innovative plastic minimisation programme, the company has been able to eliminate the environmental hazard posed by around 3,600 PET bottles per month.

“As an organisation, AES Barka is really concerned about the increasing usage of plastic, which is going to pose multiple hazards to the earth. Equally important is to conserve the natural resources by optimising its consumption to ensure that future generations are also able to enjoy the beauty of the earth,” adds Al Nofli.

Even in its core business of power generation, AES Barka has taken care to install eco-friendly machinery. The gas turbines, which generate power, are equipped with dry low NOx (DLN) burner technology to control air emissions levels of NOx (nitrogen oxide) which is harmful to human health.

AES Barka consistently tries to improve its various other efforts with the objective of conserving the environment. This includes developing a green belt in the facility; and ensuring that oil/ chemical usage or storage is not causing soil or ground water contamination by providing storage areas with non-permeable platform for secondary containment and spill palettes to prevent soil contamination.

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Protective shield

V-Kool Oman has endeavoured to educate the public about dangers of CO2 and the need for installing heat-reducing glass films

The goal of V-Kool Oman is to educate the public about climate change and global warming and demonstrate how V-Kool film installation on the glass of vehicles and buildings reduces the CO2 emissions in the atmosphere.

While educating the public about the increase of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere through green campaigns; V-Kool also wants people to know about energy saving methods while using electrical equipments and appliances.

Explaining about the product, Alaa Jarrar, general manager, V-Kool Oman, says, “By selectively rejecting solar heat, and reducing air conditioning loads, V-Kool improves the fuel efficiency of a car by 3 per cent, translating to a132 kg reduction in CO2 emissions
every year.”

As for buildings where flat glass is used for windows etc, the V-Kool film selectively rejects solar heat thereby reducing air conditioning loads and saves 103.3 kwh/m2 of energy, translating to 30.6 kg reduction in CO2 emissions every year.
V-Kool Oman also wants to increase the number of cars and flat glass areas installed with V-Kool to reduce the emission of CO2 in the atmosphere.

CO2 reduction
In Oman, V-Kool installs an average of 3200 cars with the protective film, which means that vehicles using V-Kool contribute to 422 tons of CO2 reduction per year at the rate of 132kg per car.

Over 18 million cars worldwide are installed with V-Kool films. This means that there is more than 2.3 million tonnes of CO2 reduction in the earth’s atmosphere.

Meanwhile, the area of buildings coated until date with V-Kool is about 4,64,684m2. This saves 48 million kwh of electricity, thus reducing 14240 tonnes of CO2 emission. There is 30 per cent annual increase in the number of cars installed by V-Kool, while the area of glass fitted with V-Kool is also increasing yearly by 20 per cent.

With extensive green campaigns launched by V-Kool, many people adapted the green concept in their lives and became fully aware that it is the responsibility of every individual to implement means that can lead to fuel and energy savings, which will in turn reduce the danger of environment pollution.

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ECO-FRIENDLY QUAYS

Port of Salalah took various environmental steps to decrease its carbon footprint by reducing its energy consumption

Project Qudam is an Environmental Performance Improvement initiative launched by Port of Salalah to make itself a “Green Port” and achieve reduction of carbon emissions by 15 per cent by December 2010 and a 25 per cent reduction by the end of 2014 with respect to the baseline year 2009.

As a first step, the port began a structured approach of identifying the sources of green house gases emission (GHG). Key equipments and operations contributing to the significant portion of GHG emissions were identified and potential opportunities were identified to reduce/replace technology and processes. Going forward, in 2010, independent expertise of Ernst and Young was hired to further assess the carbon footprint of the Port using internationally acknowledged best practices.

“As we are a transshipment handling port, our major contribution to the environment would be in energy consumption. Therefore, our strategy comprised of ‘reduce’ and ‘replace’,” informs Kutaiba Al Hatmy, corporate communications manager, Port of Salalah.
Project Qudam environmental initiatives include reducing the idle engine speed of the rolling terminal gantry (RTG) handling the containers and modifying the air conditioner regulation of quay cranes.

Further, in order to save fossil fuel, the port installed shut off system in the yard tractors; and reduced the waiting time of tugboats for vessels. The port also installed auto switch off system for floodlights of quay cranes; and planted trees around the perimeter of the port compound.

Sustainable initiative
Sustainability is the crux of Project Qudam. The initiatives undertaken under this project have a payback of less than three years, which ensures that these projects are implemented and managed properly. These initiatives have been approved by the top management of Port of Salalah.

Apart from reduction in the carbon footprint of the port, these initiatives also result in saving fossil fuel, which contributes, to the GDP of the nation. The Port of Salalah is also planning to take up a few of these projects under the Clean Development Mechanism of United Nations Framework for Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The initiative to go green by Port of Salalah has drawn interest from other ports in the region – considering the fact that Port of Salalah is the first amongst the few in the world and the first in Middle East to do so. In addition, the entire initiative serves as an enormous source of awareness and motivation for various stakeholders. For example, after the launch of the Project Qudam, the employees of Port of Salalah have taken the energy conservation attitude back to their home and are implementing energy efficiency measures both at work and at home.

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Clean power

A radical rethink in PDO’s energy consumption has enabled it to find environment-friendly solutions to its strategic investments

For large corporate incumbents in the oil industry, making a positive contribution to the environment does not always come naturally. A major change in the company’s DNA is required not to mention a commitment by management and shareholders alike to put the planet before financial performance.

But changing its corporate DNA is precisely what Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) has done. And the result has been a radical re-think of the way it consumes energy and how it can mitigate the effect of its operations.

PDO has been producing oil and gas for over 40 years and operates over 120 oilfields throughout Oman. In order to maintain oil production and secure Oman’s income for future generations, PDO consumes a massive amount of electric power.

To put this into perspective, PDO’s operations use as much electricity as the whole of greater Muscat (population 1 million). Much of this power is used to pump water into oilfields to maintain reservoir pressure and for enhanced oil recovery.

Environmental achievement
To meet its rapidly growing power requirements, PDO planned to construct several new power stations. The goal was to ensure that this could be achieved while reducing its carbon footprint. As a direct result of its new planet-friendly mindset, PDO scrapped plans to site plants where the power was required. Instead, at a considerable extra cost, it chose to locate the plants at oilfields where waste heat could be used to generate steam for oilfield injection using an innovative process hitherto unused in Oman.

“From these power stations, PDO will generate steam using exhaust heat that previously would have been wasted by direct venting to the atmosphere. The temperature of these exhaust gases is over 500 degrees celcius and can be used to make steam – a process referred to as cogeneration,” explains Abdul-Amir Al Ajmi, manager, Qarn Alam Cogeneration project.

Three power plants linked to cogeneration units currently under construction will save nearly 1 million tonnes of CO2/yr compared to the traditional direct-firing approaches. A further network of linked thermal EOR projects and power stations will be constructed over the coming years. These projects will help PDO realise a total emissions savings of over 4 million tonnes of CO2/yr within five years.

PDO recognises that what makes good environmental sense also makes good business sense. It also shows that in addition to protecting the planet by reducing the carbon footprint, there is an eventual payback in terms of the reduced fuel requirement. 

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