A couple of years back, the green campaigner Sharad Agarwal became interested in the environment, but like most people he was just a "spectator".
Then one day he read an article that changed his position.
"It said that the UAE has the highest carbon footprint in the world. That got me thinking about what I could do to make a difference," he says.
The very next weekend, he launched go-green.ae, a website that encourages ecological awareness. The website started out with just five pages but today has about 3,000 featuring 1,000 stories about green businesses around the world. The site receives about 30,000 unique visitors a month.
"It started growing and we started taking the portal seriously, so I invested almost three or four hours daily in it," Mr Agarwal says. "It began as a passion and now it is an obsession."
Since setting up his website, Mr Agarwal has introduced a Go Green Ambassador programme, which has 960 members in 80 countries. "One teacher wrote to me almost a year and a half back saying it is nice to provide this information, but why don't you walk the walk and give us products that will enable us to go green. That got me thinking we can do it," he says.
Ekotribe, which was started by Mr Agarwal's wife, Anu, sources eco-friendly products from 60 countries. The products include batteries that can be recharged on a laptop via a USB link. But how easy is it to generate awareness about green issues in a country with such a large environmental footprint?
"A lot is happening in the western world, not so much in the Middle East. I take it as a challenge. It is a difficult one, but someone has to do it," says Mr Agarwal, who also runs a business called Cyber Gear.
The challenge of ecological advocacy in the Emirates is partly due to the sheer abundance here, he says.
Some people are wealthy and "have everything that they want, so there is wastage. But they need to change mindsets," says Mr Agarwal.
It is already happening, he says, but he has arranged regular networking events to help the process along. The events bring together like-minded people and provide a platform for green entrepreneurs. Greenplusdeals.com, a group buying website that promotes only green products and services, was launched at Go Green's last networking event.
"When we looked at the market and we examined what was happening, we noticed so many websites that are competing in the market and we decided 'OK, first, we have an attitude in our company about doing something different than the rest of the market'," says Greenplusdeals.com sales manager, Iyad Mourtada. "We looked at green business and saw nobody was serving this segment."
Mr Agarwal has held three networking events so far, and the number of people attending has risen each time, from 50 to 80 and up to about 100. The most recent event, held last month, attracted Hewlett-Packard as a sponsor. Mr Agarwal is seeking companies to support his next networking event, which takes place this month, with sponsorship packages ranging from Dh2,500 (US$680) to Dh10,000.
Everyone has "eco DNA", says Mr Agarwal, and should put it to good use before it is too late.
"We not only have to prepare our children for the future, we have to prepare the future for our children, because look at global warming," he says. "Temperatures are increasing in Dubai. If it keeps going that way, the skin of our children will burn when they go out."
gduncan@thenational.ae
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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