Going for green

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World Future Energy Summit organiser Turret Middle East discovers that it is not easy being green in the Gulf.

Organising a carbon-free event in a region that is renowned for being one of the most wasteful on the planet is no mean feat, but the motives behind staging the World Futures Energy Summit (WFES) in Abu Dhabi meant that if the event itself were not seen to support the philosophy behind it, the whole thing would lose its credibility.

Organiser Turret Middle East had to pull out all the stops to ensure that the carbon footprint left by the event, which was held at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC) from January 21-23 was negligible.

The summit was one of the by-products of the Abu Dhabi government's decision to embrace renewable and sustainable energy technologies; a decision made in April 2006.

The show was designed to bring together some of the worlds leading experts in the energy sector to form a cooperative platform from which delegates could address some of the key issues affecting the sector, such as sustainability, climate change and energy security, so naturally the event had to reflect the purpose of the summit.

Turret Middle East worked closely with The CarbonNeutral Company to ensure that the carbon footprint left by the event was as small as possible.

"We wanted a carbon free event - or as close to it as we could get - but realistically the environment we were operating in was not geared up to enable us to create such an event," explains Richard Hease, chairman, Turret Middle East Ltd.

"Eventually we went down the route of off-setting; creating a carbon neutral event through The CarbonNeutral Company, covering everything from delegate flights to exhibition waste."

"However, where possible, we did consider the environment and tried to use products that were recycled or could be reused."

But "trying to be green in a non-green world" led to a number of tough decisions, such as whether to use local or imported products for the event: "Local products obviously meant less miles travelled, however by importing we could get recycled products," says Hease.

"Printers can't source recycled paper here and there is no general recycling collection service in Abu Dhabi (although that is about to change) and no public transport."

"We organised shuttle buses where we could to encourage people not to drive, but the buses weren't low emission as we would have sourced elsewhere."

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