This week, we talk to Kamelia Zaal, the first Arab landscape designer to participate at the Chelsea flower show and best known for her landscape design at Al Barari. Kamelia shares numerous sustainability initiatives taken up at Al Barari—the greens, the water and the waste, how she hopes to redefine play areas in the region and her tips on improving sustainability in the UAE ..read more

Welcome to Forward Talks, a new podcast by Goumbook, bringing you weekly conversations with leaders & professionals who, through their work, entrepreneurship & commitment, promote positive impact and sustainability in the UAE and beyond. On our inaugural episode, we talk to Stefanie Schachtschabel, founder of Globally Connected Companies: Stefanie pivoted her media company in 2014 to focus on sustainability and has since launched a video platform to serve all sustainable innovations in our region ..read more

We look forward to bringing you conversations with sustainability changemakers in April 2019 ..read more

ESG – a holistic concept that has roots dating back to the 1960s, has evolved over the decades gaining more traction in recent years within the corporate sustainability context. Referring to the environmental (‘E’), social (‘S’) and governance (‘G’) pillars within the sustainability framework, they are key to addressing the impacts of corporate activities and investments on people and the planet. With the current lack of unified reporting standards, definition and many frameworks influencing the ESG space, we gathered a network of experts and an all-star panel from different industries, c ..read more

Tatiana is joined on this episode by Paul Newnham, Chair of the Public Engagement Task Force for the UN Food Systems Summit and Vice Chair of the Food System Champion Network. He is also Director of the SDG2 Advocacy Hub Secretariat and the Chefs’ Manifesto Coordinator. Paul heads up the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 Advocacy Hub as Director, an initiative bringing together NGOs, advocacy groups, civil society, the private sector and UN agencies to coordinate global campaigning and advocacy to achieve SDG2. To this end, the Hub has worked with a community of 240+ chefs from 38 ..read more

Tatiana is joined on this episode by Paul Newnham, Chair of the Public Engagement Task Force for the UN Food Systems Summit and Vice Chair of the Food System Champion Network. He is also Director of the SDG2 Advocacy Hub Secretariat and the Chefs’ Manifesto Coordinator. Paul heads up the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 Advocacy Hub as Director, an initiative bringing together NGOs, advocacy groups, civil society, the private sector and UN agencies to coordinate global campaigning and advocacy to achieve SDG2. To this end, the Hub has worked with a community of 240+ chefs from 38 ..read more

In this episode, Tatiana is joined by Tarek Al Khoury, Regional Coordinator for Resource Efficiency and Sustainable Consumption and Production at the West Asia Office of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). They talk about UNEP initiatives to promote the UN Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals, more precisely SDG12, and how we can all work together to reduce food waste. Recently Tarek was also part of a panel discussion moderated by Tatiana at the Food For Future Summit 2022 to discuss policies and legal frameworks to reduce food waste. Food waste is a topic that needs o ..read more

This week, we’re sharing a conversation from a few months ago when we attended (and had a live podcast station) the Global Forum on Innovations for Marginal Envionrments held by ICBA in Dubai; the opening address by Her Excellency Mariam Bint Mohammed Almheiri, the Minister of State for Food Security in the UAE. Our guest is Patrick Crowley who founded Chapul 8 years ago when he came across a water-efficient source of protein ... crickets. Since then the company has been producing energy bars & powders based on insect protein and envision a world in which insects can provide an efficient a ..read more

This week, we're joined by Abdulaziz AlMulla, the founder & CEO of Madar Farms about the realities of water consumption and its effect on food security, how they’re handling this imbalance as well as helping educate the masses about the problem. The realities of just 1% of our land being farmland while more than 80% of our water consumption going towards agriculture is a terrifying imbalance. Madar Farms started out in 2017 to focus on using controlled-environment agriculture methods such as hydronics to conserve water while ensuring a healthy production of vegetables. We'd love to hear wh ..read more

This week, we’re talking with Luca Gagliardi, General Manager at PierChic, one of Dubai’s most iconic restaurants, on how he started out as a sommerlier in Italy, and how PierChic’s incorporates sustainability into their operations ..read more