GREEN GLASS RECYCLING INITIATIVE - LEBANON (GGRIL) - Photo Blog



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Press coverage of GGRIL:

 

DailyStar - Beirut : From used and shattered glass to works of art. By Brooke Anderson

 

L'Orient-LeJour - Beyrouth: Au Liban, une initiative recyclage intelligente et design. Anne Ilcinkas

 

The Cultural Thing - UK: The Art of Recycling Glass in Lebanon. By Gary Sullivan

 

Rasseef22 - Pan Arab Online Publication: Recycling Traditions in Lebanon. By Kaylyn Hlavaty

 

Eco-Terrorism - TV Program: BAAL Collection Green Glass Recycling Initiative. By Aly Sleem.

 

NOW - Online Publication: Bottles Up!! Beirut upcycling initiatives tackle Lebanon's waste problems. By Alberto Mucci

Official Facebook page of GGRIL: Green Glass Recycling Initiative - Lebanon

Moving Beyond Business as Usual: Next Frontiers for CSR in the MENA region

The Suliman S. Olayan School of Business (OSB) at the American University of Beirut held the first CSR Practitioner's Conference at AUB on May 4 & 5, 2012. The conference is intended as a platform for regional business leaders to address the emerging challenges and opportunities presented by the ascendancy of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Through the gathering of renowned speakers, panels and interactive discussion forums, the conference will offer a regional platform for practitioners to network and exchange best practices in relation to effective sustainability and CSR management. Sustainable business is no longer a luxury, but a necessity in a fast-­‐paced and changing global context. Empowered citizens, consumers, and social movements across the globe are demanding that governments and businesses behave more responsibly. There is also a worldwide call to learn from the current failings of the global industrial economy and move towards more creative forms of capitalism, in which companies embrace responsible attitudes and orientations and engage in practices that expand the pie and contribute to social justice and social progress.

 

It's All About PASSION - Bichaghaf Documentary

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In Lebanon: Building Resource Recovery Capabilities and a Prefab House

by HOWARD J. BROWN on JULY 17, 2012

At dMASS.net, we generally focus on resource input reductions rather than resource recovery or pollution and waste prevention for several reasons:

• Recycling and waste reduction efforts are widely reported elsewhere.
• Recycling often makes resource waste more economical. A variety of businesses and public entities become dependent on maintaining a flow of resource wastes in order to survive.
• Ultimately, the only way to dramatically reduce waste is to reduce resource use in the first place.

Yet there is no question that using resources mined above grade uses significantly fewer resources than manufacturing products with virgin resources. And once in awhile a project comes along that is so outstanding it merits our attention. For example, Cedar Environmental of Lebanon, founded and headed by Ziad Abichaker, developed Eco-Prefab 1.0, an extraordinary prefabricated house constructed with 100 percent recycled materials.

Eco-Prefab 1.0 was built using 146,000 plastic bags. (Photo: Ziad Abichaker.)

I met Ziad last year when we were co-presenters at the Eco Meda conference on waste management in Barcelona.  Ziad has been building the social enterprise Cedar Environmental by engaging the citizens of many small Lebanese communities in resource recovery. No such efforts have ever been undertaken in these communities, and there is little or no waste management or industrial infrastructure to support such an enterprise. Yet he and his colleagues are creating a viable and growing business based on a commitment to the environment. Moreover, they’re transforming resources into products that meet the needs of the citizens of those communities. Ziad, an engineer, is designing the technology for an entire local resource ecosystem.

Cedar Environmental's CSR: Abou Mizan Quarry Rehabilitation

I sat in a meeting a couple of days ago talking about the strategy of Cedar Environmental (CE) in expanding its model of decentralized waste management.  The main interlocutor was a nice, civil young man who works for a corporate giant.  


During the course of the meeting I mentioned that CE has taken upon itself to rehabilitate the first quarry in Lebanon.  His immediate response was "what value does it bring to your company?" 


It's really hard to explain to corporate types that not everything in life is measured in currency units.  I left that meeting thinking about the Sioux Indian chief who after watching the US government deregulate mining to include forests and park areas said:

When all the trees have been cut down

When all the animals have been hunted

When all the waters are polluted

When all the air is unsafe to breath
Only then will they discover, they cannot eat money.

How about that for value ?

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