Sustainability and technology: Common themes between Northern Ireland and the Middle East

Whether it was EXPO 2020 hosted in Dubai, COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, and COP 28 due to be hosted in the UAE – in just under a year’s time. Each of these events address the pressing topics of our time of how we can create a sustainable future for the whole world.

Northern Ireland may seem a long distance from the desert sands and soaring skyscrapers of the Middle East. Yet, the region is also at an inflection point in both its sustainability and technology sectors.

Northern Ireland’s long established expertise across engineering is allowing companies locally to recycle waste effectively. Niche technology from the region is also finding its way into the Middle East under different verticals, for example STATSports, a global leader in GPS Sports performance analysis system works with the Qatar national football team, Aspire Academy, and Qatar Stars League first division clubs.

Enabling sustainable progress for the region

Efficient waste handling is key to achieving sustainability goals. The total volume of waste generated in the Middle East stands at around 120 million tons per annum, with less than 10% of municipal solid waste (MSW) being recycled.

This is a major concern, as existing landfilling strategies will not suffice to handle the increase, resulting in a need for adopting alternate mechanisms to deal with waste. The region is making inroads and moving towards integrated waste management with an emphasis on waste-to-value methods such as recycling and waste-to-energy coming to the forefront. 

A number of companies from Northern Ireland are providing their engineering expertise to collaborate and deliver solutions supporting the region’s construction sector in recycling materials and meeting long-standing environmental commitments.

In Saudi Arabia, the Red Sea Global partnered with Kiverco, who developed a turnkey waste processing solution that will recycle up to 95% of incoming waste from the construction within the Red Sea Development, making it available for further use.

The facility will recycle 150,000 tonnes of construction material per year – that’s around six times the weight of the Statue of Liberty. The waste will then be either recycled into new products, or used as fuel to produce electricity at the nearby waste-to-energy site. The plant will be used for years to come to support sustainable development by the Red Sea.

Edge Innovate has proven experience of shredding tyres in the Middle East, with a fleet of customised shredders installed in Oman, with each shredder processing up to 500 tyres per hour. Finally, CDE Global is the leading provider of wet processing solutions within the waste recycling sector.

Every year, CDE equipment diverts over 20 million tonnes of construction, demolition and excavation waste from landfill by transforming that waste into valuable construction materials. CDE is engineering sustainable solutions for a range of sectors such as construction & demolition waste, excavation waste, contaminated soils, road sweepings, trommel fines at sites across the Middle East.

Supporting the growth of tomorrow’s tech firms

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland firms also support companies in the region tackling the challenges of the digital age. One of those companies is Skurio, the digital risk protection platform. Worldwide, ransomware attacks surged by 288% in the first half of 2022, and ensuring robust cybersecurity measures is frequently a central concern for companies in the Middle East.

Skurio’s platform automates the searching of the surface, deep, and dark web for critical business data and potential cyber threats to organisations. Headquartered in Belfast, Skurio provides business leaders with the confidence that their business-critical data can be protected, not only in their own business, but across their digital supply chain. Through Skurio’s technology, Middle East companies can be reassured of the security of their data.

Beyond cybersecurity, Northern Ireland’s technology companies are working across the Middle East to support the growth of tech companies. Yellow swDesign, a Northern Ireland design agency, have successfully delivered immersive virtual reality experiences that present a completely re-imagined vision of engaging audiences with tourism and retail opportunities.

Joule Group, which provides specialist fire safety engineering, have developed and integrated a fire safety inspection app for entities including the logistics company GAC, ensuring their warehouses are properly secured against disaster. The firm also created a computational understanding of the stadiums’ infrastructure, both in designing smoke prevention systems and in evacuation modelling for a number of FIFA World Cup stadia.

And finally, SLA Digital, who connect mobile operators and merchants for carrier billing, generating additional revenue for both parties while reducing costs. SLA Digital recently signed a partnership agreement with Etisalat to enable customers to access more digital content.

This is just a small picture of the level of expertise that Northern Ireland firms bring across the sustainability and technology ecosystems. Yet, one of the Middle East’s continued strengths is its spirit of partnership with companies from across the world to solve major challenges. Northern Ireland shares that same spirit: a resolute belief that, through partnership and collaboration, we can forge incredible and innovative solutions to our major global challenges.