Dubai: An online platform that will serve as a one-stop-shop for eco-friendly technologies will be launched on October 27 to make it easy for Dubai households to ‘green’ their homes.
The Dubai Green Economy Partnership (Dubai GEP) will launch the Green Deal Project, a website or an e-commerce platform that will allow users to conveniently view and buy a series of pre-verified energy and water-efficient products and services.
“The Green Deal Project is about making the usage of green products that reduce cost and reduce energy and water in our houses simpler. At the same time, it guarantees that these products are viable for use,” Fahd Al Gergawi, secretary-general of Dubai GEP, the first multi-stakeholder and cross- sector partnership to promote green growth in the Middle East, told Gulf News.
Al Gergawi said the platform will bring together companies with clean or green technologies and end-users in one venue online to facilitate a hassle-free adoption of green products.
The Green Deal Project will use the model of an online crowd sourcing social platform for group buying. This will enable customers to haggle for a group discount on a particular item.
But before green technologies are posted on the platform, Dubai GEP will screen them first to ensure end-users are getting the best quality product that deliver according to their specifications.
All products that will be featured on the website such as solar water heaters, and aerators, among others, are turnkey, which means they are products or services that are designed, supplied, built, or installed fully and ready to operate or use.
“Consumers’ needs are specific and people have to feel that the scheme altogether is understandable, it’s easy to put and install, and at the same time, financially, it’s not a burden because they can do the calculations themselves,” Al Gergawi said.
Green Deal will shorten if not eliminate unnecessary steps in going green. If one wants to install a solar water heater, for example, Green Deal will provide options for product suppliers whose products have been pre-approved, complete services for the installation of the product, and even financing schemes from its partner banks.
“The most important is the element of finance. If that product is there, individuals may not want shell out Dh6,000 on a device at once. But if there is some sort of financing that comes alongside it, that will make it easy for him, plus he is saving money,” Al Gergawi said.
Al Gergawi said Dubai GEP is talking with banks in order to come up with different financing schemes for greening a home by 2016, similar to getting a car loan when someone buys a car.
