Conversations with Design, Dine, Make a Difference’s Global Advocate Sponsors
We sat down with our ‘Design, Dine, make a Difference’ Global Advocate Sponsors to learn more about their motivation behind sponsoring Surge; their connection to this year’s theme – GAIA; and their personal connection to it all.
As you listen to these inspiring conversations, we invite you to join our movement to help create a better world where everyone has access to safe water!
Consort Architectural Hardware
“I’ve always been a massive advocate for ensuring that everybody within humanity has the basic needs. Without water, you can’t even get to the point of educating people because there is the most basic of needs. Therefore, it seems like the most basic place to start when you’re going to pick a humanitarian charity and something that supports people getting the most basic of needs.”
– Daniel May, Director
Al Tayer Stocks
On designers who have taken what they learned at DDD and implemented it in their jobs, Sandy Stirling, shared.
“It’s massively important as well. As I say, it’s not just today, it’s what’s ahead of us in the future. If everyone can make a little effort, that’s a massive effort. And it doesn’t matter if it’s in construction, it doesn’t matter what sector, even in our own individual lives – it’s incredibly important.”
– Sandy Stirling, Business Development Manager
Interface
“At the end of the day, nature is in perfect balance. If you look at the way nature designs, nothing is wasted. There is a lifecycle, things get reabsorbed back into the earth and they then become the feedstock for the futur….This is a perfect design cycle. If you could design items in that way, imagine how sustainable the world would be. For us at Interface, that is our inspiration.”
– Zubair Ahmad, Regional Director MEA
Jaquar Group
“Our main mission is to improve the quality of life for people and create solutions for their lives. Our main slogan is “Complete bathroom solutions”… Complete bathroom solutions for every single person on this planet. This is what we are trying to do. Being part of Surge and trying to make the water reach the people who need it is something very, very important. We are happy to be part of this!”
– Fawzy Tello, Head of Business Middle East
Light Link
“If you’re going to talk about ethics and you’re going to talk about sustainability and you’re going to talk about how green you are – you want to be a paperless company or this, that, or whatever – you have to prove it. You have to show people that you practice what you preach. And that’s what we do as a business. Being involved with charitable organizations helps that as a business. As much as it does for external marketing, it’s also really good for internal marketing. It’s telling your people that you care.”
– Jaspal Bal, Director
Roca
“We created a sustainability department. You can talk a lot about sustainability but you have to put it in action. Roca has created pillars – energy, water, materials, and packaging – that we are heavily auditing, reviewing, and reworking. Our main stakeholders are our suppliers, consumers, employees, and the Roca family, and they are all heavily involved and want to know exactly what we are doing about it. Most goals we set ourselves will be met around 2030.”
– Luc Siezenis, Country Manager
Havelock One
“Water is an important subject in this arid region in terms of how we’re sourcing it, how we are using it and how we are saving it. Water is life at the end of the day. Havelock One has embarked on a sustainability journey, and we are set to get better mileage in the coming years to make the topic an integral part of our day-to-day operations. We thought water was a good place to start because of its strategic importance in the Gulf region.”
– Jihad Raad, Division Director
Read conversation with Jihad Raad here.