DOHA: The Dutch ambassador to Qatar, Yvette Burghgraef-van Eechoud, described acclaimed recycling and sustainability initiatives from The Netherlands while addressing secondary students at the International School of London Qatar (ISLQ) recently.
In a presentation titled ‘Green Entrepreneurship’, the envoy first explained the disastrous consequences of human action on the environment and said that positive action must be taken.
Burghgraef-van Eechoud then explained six initiatives taken by Dutch companies to fight climate change and environmental degradation.
Fairphone manufactures ‘fair’ smartphones made from conflict-free minerals that support families, not armed militias, paying fair wages to the workers and reducing waste by providing replaceable parts and tailor-made accessories.
At Superuse Studios, architects design entire houses and playgrounds made from waste materials.
She also described WakaWaka, an impact-driven social venture that works to abolish energy poverty in the world. The WakaWaka Light is a solar-powered LED lamp meant to replace kerosene lamps. The WakaWaka solar charger is a mobile phone charger that combines the lamp with the ability to charge phones and other handheld devices.
The company runs a Buy One, Give One campaign wherein people pre-ordering a WakaWaka Power for themselves give one to Syrians in refugee camps.
The students appreciated the “LeaseAJeans” system created by a Dutch denim company that offers people the chance to lease a pair of jeans for €5 a month. After a year’s lease, the jeans can be swapped for a new pair, bought outright, or returned. The company ensures that every garment that comes back to them gets recycled, and the jeans are made with printed labels instead of leather labels to make recycling easier.
The first Repair Café opened in Amsterdam in 2009 and more have sprung up in cities across the Netherlands as well in other countries. Repair Cafés are free meeting places where people bring along their broken items, such as appliances, furniture and toys, and, together with the specialists at the Café, try to repair them. Thus, valuable practical knowledge is passed on and electrical items are used for longer, which reduces the volume of raw materials and energy needed to make new products. Elaborating on this idea for Qatar, the envoy suggested giving away or selling for a low price the repaired appliances to low-income workers.
The Smog Ring is made by Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde, who has developed a “vacuum cleaner” that literally sucks up polluted air. The rings are made from the polluted material in one cubic kilometre of smog and consequently remove that from the atmosphere. The rings come with either a fake diamond made from soot or a stone with a cube of soot in the centre.
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The Headmaster of ISL Qatar, Christopher Charleson, commented, “This topic is obviously a passion for Ambassador Burghgraef-van Eechoud and equally so it is a passion for many of the ISL Qatar students. We would like to thank the ambassador for the spark of inspiration that has already ignited some creative ideas in our community. We look forward to seeing how they develop.”
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