Award-winning architect Salma Samar Damluji speaks to GreenProphet about her mud architecture work in Yemen and why Dubai’s property development mentality is ruining the Middle East

The Middle East may be a fascinating place politically but architecturally, it’s on its last legs. Years of corruption and poor governance mean it’s slowly becoming one of the ugliest places on earth. You just need look at at the sprawling mess of glass and metal in Dubai to realise that something has gone awry. Salma Samar Damluji, an Iraqi architect of 30 years says that greed and corruption is behind the fall of architecture and insists that this money rush is destroying the region’s architectural heritage one building at a time.

And no-one knows this more than Damluji. She has fought what she calls architectural recolonisation in Egypt alongside Hassan Fathy who championed mud architecture practiced by the falaheen (rural peasants) in the 197os. And she’s also worked in Yemen restoring and renovating eco-friendly mud buildings in Yemen’s Wadi Hadramout where ancient building disappear over night after a quick bribe to the local governor if someone is paying to reconstruct a new building in cement.

“In Europe, countries have been able to preserve their own culture, architecture and urban heritage but the rest of the Arab world hasn’t done that,” explains Damluji. “So as a result they have no architectural heritage left – everybody is imitating Dubai which is a complete disaster. Unfortunately you see the result of it now all across the Arab region.”

One country that Damluji believes has been able to hold back the mass commercialisation of architecture is Yemen. “When I first went in 1981, there was a kingdom of architecture and there was a huge rich resource of architectural heritage. Yemen, I felt, was the last place in the Arab world that had this incredible civilisation and urban heritage that had been going on for hundreds of years. They were so developed that they were creating these amazing palaces out of mud – very modern too. I felt that there was a cause there and I felt I had to take on that cause.”

She has been visiting Yemen ever since and from 2005, the Daw‘an Mud Brick Architecture Foundation has supported her work to restore buildings in Wadi Hadramout. Another important institution has been the Cultural Emergency Response (CER) of the The Prince Claus Fund in Netherlands, which funded restoration projects in ‘Aynat and Sah following a destructive flood in the region in 2008.

Damluji’s effort to protect and preserve the mud architecture of Yemen, however, hasn’t been easy. Civil war, political in-fighting and badly mismanaged resources mean she’s had to rely on outside support to carry out any restoration and she also has to take on other projects just to make a living. And it isn’t getting any easier.

“It’s harder now than it used to be to work in Yemen as a woman because there are more people in Hadramout who are more… I wouldn’t say fundamentalist. There is a worse level of education and people are taking the girls out of school at the age of 12 to get them married and people rely on money that comes from relatives living in Saudi and the Gulf.”

“So, things are difficult but there is still an architectural scene for me to engage in and there are all these builders who I adore but the people don’t like dealing with a woman… They think that to become good Muslims they need to do what the Saudi’s do and not talk to women. I think they’ve got the wrong end of the stick.”

Damluji’s hard work maybe challenging but it is being recognised – she was recently named one of the five winners of the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture. The one thing she wants the award to do, however, is bring more attention to the need for architectural restoration in Yemen. She says she is going to be bringing out her begging bowl and say ‘yalla, where’s the money’. “The Yemeni residents give me such a rough time but I think that maybe years down the line people will appreciate the architecture and heritage that I helped preserve.”

When I ask Damluji why architectural heritage is so down the list of priorities in the region, she pauses and replies with one word – greed. “I think it’s all tied up to politics, economics, corruption and how much money people can make from these big construction projects. The amount of money that changes hands during the kind of modern construction is huge and the fact that they annihilate architects from the equation means that developers have complete control over the building.”

Damluji also doesn’t see Masdar as some happy half-way solution. “I don’t know what’s so ecological about constructing in the desert,” she says. “And the other point is that Norman Foster [architectural team behind Masdar] was talking about Hadramout and Shibam in his literature about Masadar but he’s never been to Yemen. I am very cynical about that kind of development … I worked there [UAE] for a couple of years and I know the mentality.”

The things that do keep Damluji motivated and have kept her going back to Yemen for 25 years are the small victories – being able to restore a Sufi dome, conserving an important mosque in Yemen and keeping locals trained in the art of mud-architecture. “I think this thing- restoring architectural heritage – is like a battle and no matter what you do there is always more work to do. So I keep moving.”

: Images via Daw’an Mud Brick Architecture Foundation.

For more on  mud architecture see: 

Iraqi Mud Architect Wins Prestigious Sustainability Award

Yemen’s ‘Manhattan of the Desert’ Boasts 400 Habitable Clay Towers

Hasan Fathy is the Middle East’s Father of Sustainable Architecture

Let us look at the ways this can be done:

Image of Cloud with Green lining via Shutterstock

By making laws:

At the moment there are no country wide comprehensive environmental laws in any of the countries in the region. Something along the lines of The European Union Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law (IMPEL) can really help provide the region with a framework for policy makers, agencies and green companies to exchange ideas, and encourages the development of enforcement structures and best practices.

By creating funds for use of Cleantech

The proposed federation can promote the use of new and renewable energy sources in an intelligent manner by providing technical and financial support to those contemplating the switch to greener options. The EU has set ambitious targets to achieve clean energy. There is however full realization that use of available technology is not optimum and in order to push the use of these, Intelligent Energy – Europe programme comes into play. The Intelligent Energy – Europe (IEE) programme is meant to encourage the use of clean and sustainable solutions. It supports the use and dissemination of green knowledge and know-how and promotes intelligent use of existing energy sources. ;

By creating funds for development of cleantech

Although there are a few standalone initiatives at each individual country level where funds are set aside or scholarships offered for cleantech and renewable energy, there is a lack of concerted effort at the regional level. The federation can serve as the ideal platform for such a move. According to estimates, the GCC will need to build up to 80,000 MW of additional power generation capacity by 2020 to meet soaring demand and by promoting the development of clean energy, the region will not only meet the escalation in demand but will also have a sustainable energy solution at its disposal. Something along the lines of The European Renewable Energy Fund can address the issue of power generation while being sustainable. The fund can make equity investments in renewable energy projects and businesses promoting and developing renewable sources of energy including wind and solar PV.

Countries in the region at an individual level have realized the potential of cleantech and are pursuing significant cleantech initiatives. Whether it is to diversify the energy related revenue sources like in the case of Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia or to relay on cleantech as the answer to its energy woes like in the case of Jordan. According to research, government policy is a primary driver for cleantech growth, and the federation can work wonders for the growth of sustainable energy solutions if they decide to take it on as part of its agenda alongside political control and show of muscle.

No harm in dreaming right?

Egyptian brothers Mostafa and Mohamed Nassar have designed a clever two-meter tall waste separator that aims to make recycling in Abu Dhabi and the other Emirates “as easy as pressing a button,” The National reports.Providers of steel solutions for construction, oil and gas industries and manufacturing plants, the Abu-Dhabi-raised pair believe that collecting recyclables can be profitable for landlords. But more importantly, they say, Gulf recycling rates will never increase unless the process is made entirely more convenient than it is currently. That’s where the WMS Metal Industries’ ENVIRO waste separator comes in handy.

Mostafa Nasser explained to the paper that at present, anyone who wants to recycle have to go out of their way to find central collection points as there are rarely the kind of door-to-door services we are accustomed to in western countries.

Consequent, all but the most diehard environmentalists are motivated to sort their waste and ensure that it finds its way to processing plants. So the Nassers hope to get landlords of apartment buildings interested in the profit that can be gained from a successful recycling program and already have plans to install their separator in Abu Dhabi’s central market and New York University Abu Dhabi.

So how does it work?

A control panel adjacent to rubbish shoots allows users to choose whether they are depositing paper, plastic, glass, metal or general waste. This requires pre-sorting at the front end, but the separator reduces the amount of sorting that has to be done on the back end of the recycling system.

Installed at the end of the rubbish chute, the head inside the separator pivots depending on the user selection and swings around to deposit the recyclables or waste in the appropriate trolly. Customizable depending on the exigencies of each building, the system allows for up to six different selections.

The Nasser brothers told The National that a 20 storey apartment building with eight apartments on each floor could net approximately $1,900 by collecting recyclables and selling them to processing plants – a comfortable income for owners of more than one property.

In the process of applying for a US patent, the pair add that people in the Gulf are not especially industrious and homegrown solutions are rare. Meanwhile, as the Emirates become buried beneath the weight of their own waste, with camels choking on plastic and water bottle consumption at unreasonable rates, recycling is becoming increasingly important.

“But more people are starting to tap into their creativity and take more responsibility for their destinies, said Mohamed.

:: The National

More on Trash and Recycling in Gulf States:
A Plastic Pollution Cocktail: Toxic Chemicals in Every Day Items
Gulf Recycling Machines Turn Waste into an Advertising Opportunity
Dubai Malls That Fail to Recycle Waste Will be Fined

Shavuot, the Jewish festival that celebrates receiving the Torah on Mt. Sinai, has always been associated with having a dairy meal. The origins of the custom go back to antiquity, and there are several explanations for it. Some hold that milk symbolizes the purity and sweetness of the Torah; as milk is to babies, so the Torah is to the Jewish soul.

Others give a vivid picture of the gathering of the Jewish nation at the foot of Mt. Sinai, waiting for Moses to descend with the Tablets of the Law. Aware of their ignorance as to the laws of kashrut, and wishing to achieve as high a spiritual level as possible, the Jews refrained from eating meat all the 50 days from the Exodus to Shavuot.

But I’m afraid that there is no commandment to eat delicious, decadent, sweet treets like cheesecake (see our recipe) or the trifle described below. Oh, well. My advice is: elevate eating with a blessing, and enjoy.

Easy Trifle for Shavuot

yield: 12 servings

Ingredients:

For syrup:

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

3 tablespoons brandy

For filling:

250 grams – 1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 – 1/4 cup sugar, divided in half

700 grams – 3 cups soft cream cheese

200 grams – 1 package ladyfingers cookies, or other light cookie

For garnish:

1 cup mixed forest berries: currants, mulberries, raspberries, etc.

1 small basket strawberries or 1 thinly sliced nectarine, or 1/2 banana or other soft fruit

Boil together all the ingredients for syrup except the brandy. Simmer 5 minutes. Take off the heat and add the brandy. Set aside.

Whip the cream with half the sugar until light.

In a separate bowl, whip the cream cheese with the second half of the sugar for at least 7 minutes, until it’s light.

Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese, mixing gently but thoroughly.

Dip the ladyfinger cookies into the syrup on both sides – a light dip, not to soak the cookies. Line the walls and bottom of your tray or serving bowl with the cookies, breaking some if needed to cover gaps in the container.

Pour about half the whipped mixture into the serving bowl, smoothing it lightly. Lay down another layer of ladyfingers dipped in syrup. Pour the remainder of the whipped mixture in and smooth again, lightly.

Garnish with fresh berries and fruit to your taste.

Enjoy!

More Shavuot recipes on Green Prophet:

• Organic Whole Wheat Bread
• Spinach and Mushroom Quiche

Photo of trifle by Miriam Kresh.

Looking for something new to worry about? Phosphorus hops onto the list of rapidly diminishing natural resources: a dangerous dwindling of something that probably never crossed your mind. Production will likely peak in our lifetime, and be fully depleted by 2100. So what’s the big deal? Phosphorus is the bedrock of food production.

This solid chemical element, most commonly found in inorganic phosphate rocks, was discovered in the late 1600’s by a German alchemist who experimented with his pee. Hennig Brand earned that cringe-worthy credit:  on the Periodic Table of Elements, his discovery is named P15.

The element is frisky.  It glows in the dark and can spontaneously oxidize. It was a key ingredient in matchstick production throughout the 1800s until it was linked to accidental poisonings, suicides and murders. It was banned from match making by the end of that century, but it didn’t go away. It couldn’t, because phosphorus is essential for life.

Phosphorous doesn’t occur freely in nature. It’s found instead in the form of phosphates, particularly calcium phosphates, and it seeps into soils via rock erosion.

Phosphorus also enters the food cycle through animal excrement. Manure is direct-deposited onto fields by livestock, or purposely gathered and spread by farmers. Enriched soils help fertilize crops which are then consumed by humans and animals alike.  Historically, the element returned to the soil via the eat/poop process, a natural continuum.

Bone ash was another source of manufactured phosphorus, but when the electric arc furnace was developed in 1890, extracting phosphorous from mined rock became economically scalable.  It quickly became the only commercial source, an industry fully dependent upon non-renewable phosphate rock.

A closed phosphorous biogeochemical loop, ‘til we broke it.

Food industrialization caused a biological custody battle: one branch took the animals and the other got the crops.  Specialization affords benefits: but it also changes the recycling of basic elements.

Recall that German alchemist?  He demonstrated that the phosphorus we eat comes out in the bathroom.  Modern sanitation whisks it far away from arable lands.  The phosphates become sewerage treatment side products, ending up in our waterways (a topic for a different article). We now segregate pastures from crop fields.  With less access to manure, farmers turn to costly manufactured soil enhancers. Phosphate fertilizer use surged in the 20^th century.

Diminished supplies threaten the world’s ability to provide enough food. We need a universal strategy to ensure that farmers have sufficient access to meet production demands. It’s time for policy action on global phosphorus security.

About 90% of all high-grade phosphorus reserves are found in five countries: China, South Africa, the United States, Jordan and Morocco.

The Moroccan royal family controls approximately 85% of that total. Lesser reserves are located in Israel, Egypt, Iraq and Tunisia.

Morocco’s Western Sahara mines are in an area of mounting human rights concerns, and exports are partially restricted due to United Nations sanctions. Next up, in terms of supply, is China, but their exports were recently stymied by a self-imposed national tariff. That tariff was lifted, but it illustrates how this critical commodity could easily be affected by trade wars.

Industrial farmers lay down about 18 million metric tons of mined phosphorus each year. Our ever-increasing meat consumption and new crop production to feed a growing biofuels industry spiked demand in 2008, and phosphate rock prices jumped by 800%. Despite the global economic crisis, prices never returned to pre-2008 levels and are, in fact, increasing.  It’s the “beachfront property” of the food industry: they aren’t making any more of it, so value soars.

Help Wanted: International Phosphorus Regulation

It took two decades following the discovery of ozone depletion before the Montreal Protocol was enacted. It’s time to take similar action to develop sustainable policies for renewable phosphorus fertilizers.

Currently, the market governs this resource, but open markets don’t protect against inequitable and unsustainable consumption. International partnerships must evolve to support efficient use and equitable access by all players in the global food game.

Researchers are forming alliances such as the Global Phosphorous Research Initiative, championed by Paul Crutzen, winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on ozone. There’s also the Dutch Nutrient Platform.

Sustainable options for phosphorus replacement are limited.

There’s a growing movement amongst small farmers towards integrated systems of animal and plant production. Practices such as crop rotation and sequential grazing allow soils to replenish. Biodiversity fights disease and minimizes pest infestation. Waste generated from sustainable farming stays within the farm’s ecosystem; phosphorous rejoins the biogeochemical conga line.

In the late 1800’s, Rudolf Steiner, organic farming guru, gave birth to “biodynamic agriculture”, emphasizing balanced interaction between animals, plants and soil. It’s a symbiotic relationship between all three; a philosophy founded on conservation. Replenish what’s removed from the environment.  Preserve water, soil, nutrients and air so they are available in perpetuity.

Farmers can attune to natural cycles.  Seasonal flooding has cultivated farmland for thousands of years, returning lost nutrients: consider the Nile. Biochar is effective. Human waste can be converted to phosphate fertilizers such as struvite.

Public awareness must be raised.  Popularize “meat-free” days to reduce global impact on the phosphorous cycle. Urge support of small, local farms. These measures have proven successful on a modest scale, but how do they go mainstream?

Last February, the 3rd Sustainable Phosphorus Summit held in Sydney, Australia attracted key stakeholders from different parts of the food production and consumption chain.  Focus was on phosphorus availability and accessibility, global food security, environmental protection, and supporting agricultural livelihoods. Delegates were challenged to develop a roadmap for prioritizing research and policy action.  The goal was to inform decision-makers as to the best forward path.

Immediate news coverage spoke of national phosphorus recovery targets. Cap and trade schemes were floated, akin to carbon emissions, and subsidy programs were assessed. Not quite sure where it all ended up: the media trail goes cold.

Clearly the issues are becoming more defined. Solutions will depend on solid relationships between policy, public awareness and scientific research.  This problem needs a champion.

Image of wavellite mineral sample, an element used in the extraction of phosphorus from Shutterstock

The World Wildlife Fund and the Cleantech Group recently published a report saying that Israel is the second best place in the world to develop green technologies, second only to Denmark. Israel has long been a major exporter of such innovations, a leading developer of water-saving technology, such as its agricultural inventions, and solar power. Now Israel is starting to bolster its own energy infrastructure, utilizing that world renowned expertise at home.

The recently unveiled Heliofocus Dish pictured above is a prime example. A secondary large scale solar project, Project Halutziot (“Pioneering”), will soon construct a 55 Mega Watt power plant as part of a joint venture with the settlement Bnei Nezarim, established by families evacuated from the Gaza Strip in 2005.

Prime Minister Netanyahu declared this project in the western Negev is “a project of national importance” and promoted it within the National Infrastructure Committee. In March 2012 alone Israel’s Public Utility Authority issued licenses for nine large solar fields.

Among those projects is a 150-acre site at Ketura that will eventually meet a third of the peak daytime electricity used in Eilat. According to Yosef Abramowitz, co-founder of Arava Power, a solar power company at the Ketura kibbutz in southern Israel, conditions in the nation’s expansive Negev desert are perfect for harvesting solar energy. Ketura, for example, gets up to 14 hours of sunlight in the summer and on average has only 15 cloudy days a year.

Gershon Baskin, of Israel’s Green Movement Political Party, recently recommended that the Jewish nation turn to its bounty of solar energy to compensate for deteriorating gas supplies from neighboring Egypt. But there’s been no word from Prime Minister Netanyahu so far about wide scale government subsides for renewable energy being on the horizon.

::Haaretz

Image via David Shankbone

When it first emerged that plans for an underwater hotel in Dubai had been revived, Arwa wrote “Dubai has more gimmicks and tacky accolades than a Las Vegas souvenir store so the last thing it needs is more plastic tat. It’s just not good and most of these outlandish projects pay very little attention to the environmental impact of their development.”

Comprised of an above water disc connected to an underwater disc by five legs, a vertical shaft, lift and stairway, the Water Discus hotel “willl allow guests to admire the depths of the ocean while making the most of the warm climate,” according to Deep Ocean Technology, the project’s designer.

This new development follows on the heels of the Hydropolis project that was sunk in 2009 when a financial crisis caused an exodus of expatriates and their investment dollars. But now it seems that Dubai is beginning to recover and has learned absolutely nothing about the impact of too much intervention on the Gulf’s fragile ecosystem. Step in for more renders of this crazy underwater hotel and let us know, should it be built?

“If any changes in environmental or economic conditions occur, the Water Discus modules can be transferred to a different place,” according to Deep Ocean Technology. “This offers a unique opportunity to live underwater on a permanent basis with unlimited options to change locations. The mobility makes changes in interior design of a hotel much easier, as any disc can be detached and replaced with a new one,” they add.

DOT claims that Water Disqus hotels can be constructed anywhere in the world and that they will be custom designed in accordance with the local environment – including the shape of the coastal line and depth of water around the coral reef. They make no claims, as far as we can tell, to have consulted marine specialists about the impact such a development would have on various coral reefs or the creatures that call then home.

“A single Water Discus is an independent structure with a usable area of approximately 1000 m2 fully equipped to ensure a high level of safety and comfort. It can serve as an individual module – a component of a bigger complex,” writes DOT. These can then be expanded to create larger complexes, which – as far as we are concerned – would be absolutely disastrous.

And what about natural disasters, you might ask? DOT seems to have taken into consideration the possibility that these hotels might be  developed in areas prone to tsunamis and insist that they will be completely safe in such an event. “The structure sits up on five sturdy legs fixed to the seabed, and the upper disc is suspended above the water surface. These two technical solutions will ensure that Water Discus remains safe even in the event of a fairly high tsunami, which can normally flood the nearest coastal areas.”

And what about claustrophobia? For some people, being stuck in an underwater space might be as uncomfortable as crawling through a cave, but DOT suggests that the view of the sky prevents this from happening. Although they don’t seem to have conducted any environmental impact assessments, they have gone through rigorous safety evaluations.

“The design, construction and technical condition of the complex are under permanent supervision of an international classification organisation with experience in the field of building and operation of boats, ships, offshore structures and professional diving systems,” according to the company.” The hotel meets safety standards of local and international organizations and promises a deluxe sensory experience like no other.

For the sake of our already over-stressed marine systems, we hope like hey that this project never sees the light of day.

Images courtesy Deep Ocean Technology

More on Dubai’s Underwater Madness:

Hydropolis Underwater Hotel in Dubai Still Sunk

Underwater Hotel Plans Revived in Dubai

After a very slow start in solar energy production, Israel is finally beginning to join her Arab neighbors fast-forwarding into a solar future, like the Saudis’ $109 Billion Solar Plan to Power a Third of Saudi Arabia.

Arava Power Company, Israel’s only solar developer to make any headway against the entrenched bureaucratic resistance, now has financing and power agreements for eight solar power projects totaling 58.5 MW, valued at (a comparatively high by U.S. standards) $204 million.

In March, the company was given the go ahead by the country’s Public Utility Authority (PUA) to install a 40 MW project, once it got funding from the Obama administration in February.

(Related: Arava’s 40 MW Solar to Power a Third of Touristy Eliat’s Peak Power.)

But the only project to be approved prior to that was (again, Arava’s) small 5 MW installation that we covered in Bedouin Solar Power Activate! Even that tiny project faced months of bureaucratic battles.

Arava plans to ultimately build 400 MW of solar projects, which would quadruple Israel’s current solar capacity of 140 MW.

The reason for the sluggardly growth is its very unambitious clean energy legislation, which seems inexplicable in a land simply brimming with the sort of engineering genius in its “Silicon Wadi” that should have catapulted the country to Middle East dominance in clean energy.

(Related: Chamelic Invents Answer for Desert Solar & Dust! )

It was the Israeli engineers at Luz for example that virtually invented the entire solar thermal industry that has gone overseas. BrightSource Offers World’s Biggest Solar Storage Deal.

Despite all that talent, for example, Arava’s 58.5 MW solar project is to be built by Germany’s energy powerhouse Siemens. The financing is from French and Israeli banking interests, France’s Electricite de France, the Israeli branch of France’s EDF, the Israeli energy investment bank Noy Fund and financiers Migdal Insurance Company, its largest bank, Hapoalim, and Amitim, which funds diaspora projects.

The funding came once a provisional license from the Public Utilities Authority was granted and an agreement to buy the power was signed with the Israel Electric Company.

Although Israel has introduced a feed-in tariff, which includes  projects up to 5 MW, the rates offered are so low as to provide no incentive to solar developers. And it has introduced a 10 percent renewable target (by 2020), but there is really no policy mechanism to get there, and no punishment for failure to.

The right wing government that has dominated Israeli politics has retarded the growth of renewables energy in favor of chasing the vanishing mirage of fossil energy.

(Related: Has Israel Become a Petrostate?)
But natural gas is proving to be a volatile misstress. Electricity prices are set to jump 9 percent this year.

A few months ago,  the Public Utility Authority suddenly approved nine licenses in a month totaling 385 MW of utility scale PV, and another 50 small PV installations totaling 116 MW. With these, including the Arava licenses, now approved, things are starting to look up.

Read more on Israel solar:

Could Israel Join With its Arab Neighbors in Medgrid?
Egypt Now Contracting a Whopping 1,000 MW Wind Farm!
Solar Power to Pay off Greek Debt?

After heavy fog in Payerne, Switzerland threatened to derail the well-laid plans to commence the first sun-powered transcontinental flight this morning, Borschberg was finally able to lift off at 08h24 UCT+. And ground crews in Toulouse are on standby in the event that meteorological or mechanical issues require an emergency landing.

It is possible to track progress of this historic flight (lots of history being made today as the second day of Egypt’s first real, competitive elections come to a close) on the Solar Impulse website. Available are directional details, a map, and even live footage of the ground crew.

At present, the plane’s battery power is at 100%, its solar-generated capacity at 60% and its engine power at 45%. It’s cold outside and the Pyrenees mountains are up ahead.

Once Solar Impulse completes its 2,500 km journey and arrives in Rabat, which is loosely scheduled to happen in the next couple of days, the pilots will be hosted by MASEN.

They will take part in a tour of the 160MW plant further south, which comprises just a small part of Morocco’s plan to produce 2,000 MW of solar energy by 2020, resulting in carbon emissions savings of 3.7 million tons.

:: Avionnews

More on Solar-Power and Morroco:

World’s Longest Solar-Powered Flight to Land in Morocco

Morocco Airport Counts Solar Power Carbon Savings

Desertec Begins: 500MW Solar Power in 2012

Each unique piece is made of salvaged wood that would have been scrapped otherwise and fitted with Miyota’s state of the art timekeeping mechanism. They are splash-proof and svelte and contain nary a toxic, artificial chemical. Hit the jump to see a few images and to find out how to make one your own.

WEwood uses seven different kinds of wood as the source material for their bespoke natural watches, including Blackwood, Maple and Indian Rosewood. And their eco-ethos doesn’t end there.

When they opened a branch in Los Angeles, WEwood teamed up with American Forests – a tree-planting organization.

“With this happy pact, the goal is to help restore Mother Nature, one watch at a time, by planting a tree for every WeWOOD purchased,”  according to the company literature.

“In just the first three months, WEwood planted 5,000 trees with American Forests, and sets challenging targets for 2012 and beyond. Keeping forests healthy and happy keeps us healthy and happy, we like to keep our reminder on our wrist.”

Usually, products like these are much harder to come by in the Middle East and North Africa. There are a few cottage industries in Cairo, Luxor, Siwa and beyond that sell sustainable goods, but rarely with such a wholesome Florentine flair and finish. So it’s very exciting to find an Egyptian dealer.

That being said, quality like this doesn’t come cheap, so these watches are definitely aimed at a relatively affluent market. Whilst they’re not as grossly priced as a Rolex, they’re certainly not affordable for the average Cairene tomato vendor.

But don’t get us wrong. Genuinely sustainable products are more expensive because greater effort goes into their production, they aren’t mass manufactured and almost obsessive attention is paid to every detail. Frankly, anything that’s too cheap was probably made in China.

To purchase your own WEwood watch, send an email to: WeWOODEgypt@gmail.com

More Sustainable Goodness From Egypt:

Egypt May Survive Climate Change Thanks to AUC Students

KarmSolar Prize May Avail Off-Grid Solar Pump to Rural Egypt

Eco-Friendly Bakery Gives Historic Presidential Voters Free Pastries