What’s the most valuable room in a house?
Towards the end of a list that for many might include the kitchen, the master bedroom or the living room, you’d find the garage. Not at the bottom of the list but probably nowhere near the top. Beyond cars and bicycles it is often little more than an undecorated space used to store an array of miscellaneous items that we can’t find a place for but don’t want to throw out. The garage would rarely be considered the prime feature of a house, being left underutilized.
This wasn’t the case for Steve Jobs. As the legend goes, Jobs founded with Steve Wozniak what has become one of the World’s most iconic brands in his family garage. But the man behind Apple isn’t alone in his garage-based beginnings – Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Disney are all said to have started in garages. From humble beginnings to global powerhouses, these major companies – and, importantly, their founders – weren’t dissuaded by their initial settings. They had a vision and a product. And they recognized that it’s not where you start that matters, it’s where you finish.
More concerned with sustainability and social impact than a Nasdaq listing, Lamis Al Hashimy joins the likes of Jobs, Gates, Bezos and others as a founder whose business was also born in a garage.
Co-founding Palmade – a brand which offers eco-friendly products such as disposable cutlery, using discarded date palm leaves – Lamis is quickly taking her UAE-based family business to new heights with her husband, Yusuf. What started as a garage project has become a successful eco-friendly enterprise, with a large Dubai-based factory, supplying the likes of Emirates Flight Catering and Rove Hotels.
Al Hashimy has been widely-commended for her ingenuity and innovative product. And yet, in spite of her success, she remains grounded and acutely aware of the task in front of her:
“Date palm tree biomass waste is estimated to be 1.2 million tons a year – and that is in the UAE alone,” she notes. “Every time our cutlery is being used, this is one less piece of plastic cutlery poisoning our ecosystem. That keeps me going.”
Al Hashimy’s has just been named as one of the Boston Consulting Group’s BCG V60 Nominees. Celebrating visionary women leading climate and sustainability in the Middle East, the BCG V60 Awards presented last month in Dubai highlight the impactful work of 60 women across a variety of industries who are mobilizing communities and influencing policies to make progress towards net-zero targets.
Whether innovators, academics, policymakers or entrepreneurs, these women have been recognized by the BCG V60 for rising to the challenge posed by the climate crisis – and inspiring future generations of climate activists and entrepreneurs in the process.
A passionately selfless business leader, it’s no surprise that Lamis, when reflecting on being named a BCG V60 winner, is less concerned with personal recognition, and instead looks to what such an accolade does for her brand, work and impact.
“It feels like Palmade’s work is recognized and seen in an industry that is so misunderstood – and that means a lot for a start-up.”
The UAE’s hosting of COP28 served as just the latest reminder that sustainability is high on the agenda for the Gulf region. But a bourgeoning market for sustainable products is not necessarily enough for business success. So what distinguishes Palmade from others? Well… Lamis.
A graduate of the Boston College Carroll School of Management in Accounting, her early career was with Deloitte and Morgan Stanley, as well as Dubai Holdings, the global investment company that belongs to Dubai ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum.
Bolstered by her time at business school and breadth of professional experience, Al Hashimy has quickly established herself as a breakout entrepreneur. But what makes the winner of the BCG V60 Circularity Award and all the other V60 nominees so special is their passion for climate action – it’s this passion, after all, that drives their ingenuity.
Derya Baran, an Associate Professor in Material Science and Engineering at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), is co-founder of RedSea, which is tackling extreme heat and water scarcity in agriculture.
Recipient of the BCG V60 Innovation Award, Derya has received widespread recognition in a typically male-dominated industry. This has translated into funding: as of May 2023, RedSea – which, as part of its portfolio, has rolled out iyris SecondSky, a product that helps to cool spaces by blocking infrared light – has received $36.5 million in funding.
According to Derya, when looking at the scale of the issues climate change poses, this is a worthy investment.
“Our work is vital as temperatures are increasing – not only in desert areas, but globally – significantly affecting agriculture. We need climate adaptive technologies that tackle heat to move a step forward to climate action.”
2023 was the hottest year on record as temperatures soared worldwide. Global warming is an issue that affects all of us, not just commercial farmers. Aware of this, Baran’s RedSea not only caters to those in the agriculture industry, but also other communities, such as guests at the Red Sea Global Project in Saudi Arabia.
In Derya’s eyes, being acknowledged by the BCG V60 alongside other women driving the sustainability agenda in the Middle East is so much more than just a nod to her and her work.
“This initiative is so important because it offers you an eye-opening moment that you are not alone in this journey. Climate action does not have gender or geography. And so, to see that many other people believe in this issue just like you makes you move bigger and bolder.”
For Shelly Trench, Managing Director and Partner at BCG in Dubai, the work of Derya and other V60 winners reflects BCG’s own commitment to impact climate change. Co-author of a report, Net Zero Meets Green Growth: How GCC Countries Can Transition to Net Zero While Growing Their Economies, that looks at how decision-makers can make Net Zero a success for their countries and economies, Trench’s own path is a great example of embracing the challenge to reduce climate change.
After graduating in Chemical Engineering from the University of the West Indies, Trench began her career in the oil & gas sector, before heading to Harvard Business School for her MBA. In the past 14 years she has led significant projects on strategy, sustainability, green ventures, innovation and net zero.
“BCG provides a platform for all of us to build on our innate interest,” she comments. “This is such an entrepreneurial environment, and the rapid learning curve we are all on in this race to save the environment and the climate is one of the most exciting learning journeys I’ve ever been on.”
“Gender equity is so important,” says Derya Baran, “as it brings diversity to see the challenges and potential solutions.” Her words remind us of an important truth: irrespective of who you are, where you live or what gender you are, climate change will impact your life.
For all too many communities around the world, the effects of climate change compound with other existing catastrophes to create an environment that is almost impossible to thrive in.
Few are as aware of this as Majd Mashharawi. From Gaza, Majd has witnessed first-hand the devasting impact of climate change as well as conflict. Significant and sustained damage and depletion to infrastructure has rendered energy, as well as other vital resources such as building materials, incredibly scarce.
These supply shortages have placed unbearable pressure on Palestinians, as resources – like electricity – are diverted to hospitals, leaving many without for power for long stretches of the day.
“Gaza had been suffering from a severe energy crisis since 2007. In 2017, however, this crisis became a full-blown catastrophe. 2.2 million people in Gaza are living with under 3 hours-worth of electricity a day in the best-case scenarios. At times, however, the electricity goes off for days,” Mashharawi explains.
“This crisis is ripping apart the fabric of the Gaza society. People cannot work, study, run a business, or even carry out their regular daily practices.”
Surrounded by conflict, and with limited access to essential resources – Majd’s story is a beacon of hope. In 2015 she founded GreenCake, which develops bricks from rubble and ash. Two years later she launched SUNBOX, which provides Palestinians with affordable access to energy through solar kits.
“We introduced SUNBOX to the market to offer different solar technical solutions to match family needs. In less than 5 years, SUNBOX has become one of the main providers for solar energy in Gaza benefiting tens of thousands of people.”
Via GreenCake, she is quite literally helping to rebuild the country, all the while championing eco-friendly building methods. Embodying a determination for positive change, and the resilience press on in the face of adversity, she looks to the future.
“I hope to rebuild my country from ashes. I want to build a new future for my people through these initiatives. But I also hope to see more women receiving decent recognition to the work they are doing in their societies – I am sure there are thousands who are doing amazing work but no one knows about them,” she says.
It’s clear to see that Mashharawi’s hopes for the future extend beyond helping Gaza and combatting climate change. In her eyes, she also has a responsibility to promote gender equity via the platform she has built.
“Improving gender equity when finding and creating solutions for the challenges society goes through will only be a positive thing – it will widen the circle of talent,” she argues. But, for Majd, who won the BCG V60 Award for Impact, in order for real change to take place, passionate women entrepreneurs must be met with support from their male counterparts:
“My brothers joined my journey and built the company to be as successful as today. They challenged the society and decided to focus on creating a new norm by working for a female CEO. And the same goes for my husband, Abdallah. I was the first woman in the history of his family to own a company.”
Deeply grateful to those who have supported her, Mashharawi, much like Palmade’s Al Hashimy and RedSea’s Baran, is quick to praise the contribution of others – less so to reflect on her own.
But, in many ways, that’s what makes Majd, Lamis, Derya and the other V60 nominees so inspiring: they have proven themselves to be deeply impactful innovators, and yet have done so with such modesty. These climate entrepreneurs are making their mark on the world, one piece of eco-friendly cutlery, one new heat-offsetting tech innovation, one rubble-comprised brick, at a time.
Thankfully, their work is being recognized by BCG’s V60 Awards and may inspire other aspiring women in climate, innovation and sustainability. As Majd Mashharawi’s says, “When everything seems dark, there is always light at the end of the tunnel.”
