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Gulf News
  • 10 months ago
Meet and Emirati entrepreneur who's passion for the environment was the driving force behind her innovative products. See more at: http://gulfnews.com/gntv
Transcript
00:00There are more and more entrepreneurs trying to bring their ideas to life in the UAE.
00:10We've come to meet one Emirati entrepreneur who's taken her passion for green design
00:15and turned it into a business.
00:17My name is Lemis Harab.
00:18I'm from Dubai.
00:19I'm the founder of Biodepacking and Packaging, the first Arab supplier and designer of biodegradable
00:25packaging and biodisposables.
00:28As a woman in the UAE, I'm actually in an excellent place because it encourages entrepreneurship.
00:34It encourages leadership.
00:36So I have all the opportunity that I would need.
00:39I have the education, and I do have the passion as well.
00:43I love design, and I'm very interested in being a designer, just designing what I want
00:47to design and not something else.
00:49I want to use design to do something worthwhile.
00:53The majority of plastic pollution right now in our oceans are related to single-use disposables
00:58and food-related.
00:59So that was something that I was kind of jumping on as like a starting point.
01:03Okay, we have this problem and influx of single-use disposables.
01:07It kind of gave me this insight into viewing waste as a design problem.
01:13I was already kind of looking at plant-based materials and compost and how it fits with
01:17the New York tree-planting programs and things like that, and I was like, okay, what can
01:20I do in the UAE?
01:21I decided to design all our products.
01:24So we have a reusable line.
01:26We have our compostables, the regular ones, and we have our household lines as well.
01:32We had our problems with the products in general.
01:35Bioplastics made for Europe aren't great for the Middle East.
01:40Their melting points are much lower than we need for storage.
01:44They degrade easily.
01:45We've had problems with straws breaking and cups kind of melting in the car.
01:52So, you know, just in our test, so to me it was, you know, distribution was really a research
01:56and development year.
01:57Since we stocked the product of Lamy's and BioD here, the results, the sales were very
02:03good, excellent, to the point that we are now thinking of using them in our Café de
02:07Taste initiative for our deliveries and for all our needs here in the restaurant.
02:13We specifically use materials that can work within the UAE and further biomaterials use
02:18in the UAE.
02:19We're going to follow Lamy's to meet with a client that she's been in talks with about
02:23changing their disposable products to BioD's food and beverage line.
02:27I understand what it means to be working with people who've never done a specific business
02:36before in their lives.
02:38It's hard, but the rewards are magnified.
02:43Lamy's ticks all the boxes from our perspective.
02:49So it is in both our interests to be doing this work and building a future.
02:56I think entrepreneurship is really something that, it's different, having your business
03:00and being an entrepreneur is completely different, but when you, you know, when you're passionate
03:05about feeling like, okay, I have this product or I have this idea and I want to see it in
03:08the world in some kind of way, whatever that idea of yours is, if you're passionate enough
03:13and if you're really willing to work hard, you are in an environment where you can follow
03:18your dream or safe, you're okay.
03:21You know, whatever you're, you think is hard right now really is not the hardest thing.
03:25So just go for it.
03:26You can do it.
03:27There are so many opportunities for Emirati entrepreneurs in the UAE and Lamy's is proof
03:33that if you're passionate about something and you're willing to work hard, you can achieve
03:36your goals.
03:38I'm Sarvi Granpaya, Golf News.
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