In an office surrounded by engineers and an architect, I questioned myself what was I doing in this line of business? As an administrative executive, I would like to answer and understand our business and its goals. Naveen explained that we deal with building energy and operational efficiency consultants. My colleagues usually say that we deal with sustainable business. I was like, “whaaaaaaaat is that?!”, then I hear Star Wars theme song playing at the back of my head. I didn’t learn this in college, no one told me there is a thing such as “Sustainability”. As a mass communication student and someone who spends a lot of time surfing the world wide web, my first instinct is to Google the word, it gave me this very nose bleeding meaning:
“Sustainability could be defined as an ability or capacity of something to be maintained or to sustain itself. It’s about taking what we need to live now, without jeopardising the potential for people in the future to meet their needs. If an activity is said to be sustainable, it should be able to continue forever.”
Do I really understand this or am I just telling myself that I understood this. This is the simplest meaning and it creates a whole broad perspective of how can this be obtained without affecting anything that can destroy something. Should we give up the luxury of what we are used to having and embrace the fact that we should live uncomfortably just to be called sustainable.
For the last six months, I’ve been exposed to extensive talk about sustainability in UAE. The common aim is to pursue progress while protecting, preserving and propagating the environment. This is a challenge for the country, a big challenge for any country. Especially for UAE, it is a fast growing country wherein they need all the resources they can lay their hands on. Progress is the main goal but one important thing that they keep in mind is also to preserve for the next generations
Three words that would help me understand sustainability more and describe the aim of our company: Renewables, Efficiency and Energy.
I am positive that through Pactive, we will make a difference to ground level issues, optimising one building at a time, educating one customer after another and bringing about a shift in the way we choose to grow.