Meet Surge’s DDD 2022 Global Advocate Sponsors
This December 7th, Surge’s ‘Design, Dine, make a Difference’ Gala will once again offer the region’s Architecture & Design community a unique forum to come together for a common purpose. Together, the industry will raise awareness and funds for Surge’s global work to provide sustainable safe water, sanitation and hygiene solutions to the world.
Surge is also excited to announce that they have secured 8 Global Advocate sponsors: Al Tayer Stocks, Consort, Cundall, Interface, Light Link, Milliken, Seekers, and The Senator Group.
Surge welcomes both returning and new sponsors to their growing Surge family. Here’s a bit more about each company and how they are doing their part to make the world a better place!
Al Tayer Stocks has been a leading contractor within the UAE for over 20 years. The business is comprised of 3 divisions – Interiors, Building and MEP. ATS take pride in their reputation and have reinforced their positions in the market through successfully delivering challenging projects across all sectors.
“We at ATS have a tremendous amount of respect for the work being done by the Surge for Water team. Supporting Surge gives us the opportunity to play a small part in bettering the lives of people all over the world. We have been part of this event for many years and look forward to continuing our support of this great initiative.”
– Ian Milford, CEO
Consort is committed to safeguarding our future through the responsible and ethical use of resources and minimising our negative impacts on the world around us.
“It is undeniable that our industry has a major environmental impact; however, in acknowledging and taking ownership of this fact, we can make more conscious choices and become a powerful agent of change.
Our approach goes beyond buzzwords and vague promises. The following are the firm commitments we are making to reduce our environmental impact in the very real and near future.
– Launched in 2022 we now offer a buy-back scheme for our premium range products against an original purchase price credit. We will either recycle or repurpose these products.
– Within our premium range, we have now eliminated 95% of plastic packaging and aim to be totally plastic-free by July 2023. We are also aiming to eliminate all plastic packaging across our full range of products by the end of 2023.
– By the end of 2025, we aim to ensure that our full range of products can be recycled, either by being repurposed into new products and projects when interiors change or through raw material recycling.
When it comes to sustainability, our work is never done. We will continue to review our supply chain, business operations, and manufacturing to ensure that we are continually challenging ourselves to set increasingly ambitious targets and align with evolving best practice.”
– Daniel May, Director
At Cundall, each and every person’s work is dedicated to a greater purpose, to make a change in the world by building an environment that is focused on people and a sustainable future. Their vision to be agents of change for a sustainable world and construction industry thought leaders is what led them to achieve their carbon neutrality commitment and set the goal of becoming carbon positive by 2025.
“Surge’s mission to achieve impactful solutions through sustainable design aligns closely with what we aspire to achieve at Cundall. We believe that every project should achieve genuine benefits through our involvement. It is a privilege to support Surge’s local community of designers and to play a part in achieving safe water access for those that need it most.”
– Richard Stratton, Managing Partner MENA
Interface, Inc., is a global flooring solutions enterprise with an integrated portfolio of carpet tile and resilient flooring products, where everything is third-party certified carbon neutral. With their design approach to flooring systems, they help their customers create high-performance interior spaces that have a positive impact on people’s lives and the planet. Their range includes Interface® carpet tile and LVT, nora® by Interface rubber flooring, and FLOR® premium area rugs for commercial and residential spaces.
Interface is third-party certified as a Carbon Neutral Enterprise. They neutralised their carbon impact across their entire business, including all operations and their full value chain, marking an important milestone toward their objective to become a restorative and carbon negative enterprise by 2040.
“The Surge event brings together perfectly two fundamental aspects of Interface’s ethos – design leadership and sustainable practice. We are proud to support an initiative that challenges the A&D community to create beautiful schemes which respect and protect our planet.”
– Zubair Ahmad, Regional Director Middle East & Africa
Light Link provides quality lighting design and supply solutions with absolute integrity and commitment. They take the time to listen and understand clients’ wants and needs, aligning their services to suit.
Our decision to sponsor Surge was an easy one. We believe it’s important to be part of the change and help to drive awareness within our industry and beyond. The more people that get involved, the more it encourages others to help.
Billions around the world still don’t have access to clean water, while others take that luxury for granted. Campaigning to transform communities in need of safe water is such a worthy cause; we want to align ourselves with more charitable initiatives moving forward and we hope this is just the beginning of our collaboration with Surge.”
– Jaspal Bal, Director
Milliken believes in designing beautiful spaces that spark innovation, promote wellness, and encourage global connections. Milliken strives to discover new ways to enhance lives and make the world around us more sustainable and more beautiful. Sustainability is at the core of Milliken’s philosophy and they set ‘planet, people and product’ goals that protect and improve our world.
“We are very proud to be able to support Surge for Water by sponsoring their annual event ‘Design, Dine, Make a Difference.’ The work Surge for Water does is critically important: investing in communities to help provide safe water, sanitation and hygiene solutions to help end the cycle of poverty. The ethos of Surge aligns with Milliken’s commitment to “do good” and leave an impact on the design world but never negatively impact the world around us. From November 2021 Milliken is offering all of its floor coverings with Carbon Neutral certification as standard.”
– Alison Kitchingman, Director of Marketing & Design
Seekers Furnishing has been a Surge supporter since the organization’s launch in the region. They have been delivering bespoke joinery for over 25 years. From minimalistic designs to those that push boundaries to their limits, the Seekers team delivers.
They have been selected by some of the world’s biggest brands such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Siemens, and have delivered award winning projects. In 2016 they became the first joinery in UAE to be awarded the AWI QCP Licence.
“Seekers is proud to support Surge because they are inspirational with a hands-on approach teaching people how to be the owners of positive transformations in their communities over the long term.”
– Malcolm Fernandes, Sales Manager
The Senator Group is a global leader in quality, with the capability and capacity to meet large-scale demand. They are relentless in their approach, uncompromising in their manufacturing, and obsessive with their mission to be the world’s first choice for exceptional office furniture. Senator creates products that set the stage for people to do amazing things. They inspire possibilities for people to change the world in a million different ways, big and small, local and global, every day.
“The Senator Group aims to leave a positive impact – through charity and community work, and improving our environmental impact; like our Net Zero pledge for 2030. Partnering with Surge allows us to have a broader impact by supporting our global community.”
– Darran Jones, European Sales Director
Surge is thrilled to have the support of these Global Advocate Sponsors in providing access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene. Thank you Al Tayer Stocks, Consort, Cundall, Interface, Light Link, Milliken, Seekers, and The Senator Group for supporting both this year’s gala and Surge’s mission! Together, we’re creating a better world!