April 2011
www.buildgreen.ae
Randala Jishi Anabtawi (left) and Tatiana Antonelli Abella (right), the team behind the Middle East-based ‘green’ directory and website Goumbook.
Growth and competition From its base in the regional hub of Dubai, the Goumbook team has a reach that stretches across the MENA region and beyond. Abella notes: “We’re now working with all the green building councils across the MENA region and we cover the Arab League’s 22 member countries, as well as Iran and Turkey.” Despite its wide reach, Anabtawi remarks that competition is still weak across the region. “Regionally we don’t have any competition. In terms of green tips and news we do, but in terms of the green business directory we don’t,” she says. This factor provided one of the key motives behind the girls’ inspiration to start the Goumbook website. Abella recalls: “We realised that the more we were searching for ‘green’ products we would find a ‘green’ directory in the UK, in New Zealand, in the United States and so on, but here there was nothing. It meant that there was something missing, but now there isn’t. “Perhaps we started too soon as there were not many companies offering ‘green’ products, but because we got there first, we have an advantage of having started the directory and are aware now of what is needed to make it work.” While it might seem strange that Goumbook’s success has not been replicated elsewhere in the Middle East, Anabtawi says she’s not surprised due to the hard work involved in establishing the business. “We have been working on this project for nearly two years now, and we literally have to go to every single exhibition and every
GREEN BUSINESS
With credibility a sensitive issue within the sustainability market, Anabtawi remarks that the team has to audit businesses looking to be listed on the Goumbook site “because there is a lot of greenwashing out there”. “People who really are into the environment do look into these things and people who know will come back and tell us that a listing is not ‘green’ or that a product is not eco-friendly,” notes Anabtawi. “As we really don’t want to be in that position we try to be as diligent as we possibly can.” If the team is unsure about a business’s ‘green’ credentials it puts the potential listing on hold until supporting evidence is received.
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