\u201cThe Future of the UAE\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0survey has shown that a third of residents are concerned about the environment, with the 45-54 year olds and non-Arabs showing the most concern. Half of the population worries about the depletion of water, food and energy resources. If Arabs, both Emiratis and expats, show the least concern about the environment, it is largely because they believe the right steps are being taken to reduce the country\u2019s carbon footprint, as 90% of them stated.<\/p>\nWhat is interesting is that this concern doesn\u2019t necessarily translate into behavioral change. UAE residents certainly express a massive support (8 in 10) of the UAE\u2019s efforts to improve the environment, led by Emiratis (98%) as it is their country\u2019s future that is at stake. However, it seems that the efforts must come from somewhere else than themselves.<\/p>\n
If 3 in 4 residents expect to see more hybrid cars on the road, less than 25% declare intending to buy one themselves. Even less (15%) envisage switching to a smaller engine. The UAE is certainly addicted to its cars. This and concerns over the growing traffic congestion and the rising costs of running a car aren\u2019t enough yet to push residents to increase their usage of public transport.<\/p>\n
At home, the pattern is replicated. Environmental concerns appear to impact the choice of appliances, particularly washing machines for 2\/3 of consumers, but only 8% currently use natural or organic detergents. On the upside, nearly half declare the intention to switch to these in the future.<\/p>\n
Packaging and recycling is where the paradox is the most vivid. The large majority of consumers indicate a preference of natural or recyclable packaging, with only 22% stating a lack of interest or concern over packaging contents. They are also overly positive about a brand\u2019s efforts in promoting recycling through the supply of dedicated stations, making 57% happy, 42% more loyal to the brand and positively altering the brand\u2019s image for 37%.<\/p>\n
Yet, actively participating in recycling appears to be too much effort at this stage and these good intentions aren\u2019t necessarily converting into new or more positive behaviors, with only 20% considering, or currently, using these recycling stations.<\/p>\n
The good news is that this isn\u2019t stopping companies from stepping in and making efforts with the environment.<\/p>\n
For example, McDonald\u2019s UAE\u2019s fleet of vehicles will complete 5 million kilometers this December purely on biodiesel. The restaurant chain collects its used cooking oil from its 135 outlets twice a day and, thanks to a partnership with UAE-based Neutral Fuels, converts it into a renewable biodiesel fuel.<\/p>\n
According to Neutral Fuels, each liter of cooking oil can make about one liter of biodiesel and sales of the renewable fuel have been increasing every year since 2012.<\/p>\n
The more ways we find to \u2018green\u2019 our lifestyles and provide viable alternatives, the more consumers will follow as intentions are there. The key is for those alternatives not to negatively impact the lifestyle and comfort to which they\u2019ve grown accustomed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As the COP21 began, the world\u2019s attention turned not only to Paris and the multiple declarations of good will by world leaders but also to what our collective future is made of. With 2015 about to be declared the hottest year since records began and a recent report stating that the UAE could become inhabitable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,63],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mena-news","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/omnicommedia.com\/mena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/omnicommedia.com\/mena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/omnicommedia.com\/mena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omnicommedia.com\/mena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omnicommedia.com\/mena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/omnicommedia.com\/mena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omnicommedia.com\/mena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/omnicommedia.com\/mena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omnicommedia.com\/mena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omnicommedia.com\/mena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omnicommedia.com\/mena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}