“Bird Collaborative Is An Experiential Brand Offering Products That Are Sustainable, Functional and Beautiful” Says Nabil Mhanna, Co-Founder of UAE based BIRD Collaborative | |
Staff Writer |
For one who believes that sustainability is not just a new-age buzzword but more than that, Nabil Mhanna is a ray of hope and an inspiration for companies that are struggling to be completely sustainable. Mhanna believes in being a solution-seeker in a world full of problem propagators. Inspired by the Finnish idea of Sustainable Wood, Nabil Mhanna and Maitha Al Matrooshi, decided to use exactly this as an alternative to plastic. “We need to reach a point where sustainability becomes the norm, again, it doesn't become something that is an industry” said Nabil Mhanna who is practical when it comes to his ideas and is constantly yearning for innovative sustainability ideas that have a market in the UAE.
BIRD Collaborative derives its name from the idea that the conservation of the environment is all-inclusive. The company has an ambitious vision to change the average behaviour of consumers towards purchasing plastic. Nabil Mhanna drew inspiration from a heart-wrenching incident at the Omani island of Masirah where he witnessed a whale washed off on the island with what was identified after inspection as plastic poisoning. This incident gave him a deep insight into how the current lifestyle and consumption trends of human beings are having a direct and far-reaching effects on the flora and fauna of this planet, in which lies in a delicate balance even in far-reaching areas. It was then that he decided that he wanted to contribute to the world in a better and more sustainable way.
His company, ‘Bird Collaborative’ also has a fascinating story behind it. "We take nature into consideration and the name bird is a constant reminder that everything that we do", Nabil said when talking about the name of the company. “Our products have to be not only functional and beautiful but also sustainable”, he continued. He also further talks about how birds inspired the employee structure of the company to be more collaborative.
And this fascinating revelation doesn’t end here. Read the whole interview for more…
Q: What does sustainability mean to you?
A: Sustainability simply means continuity. As a broad definition, it means benefiting from resources in an ethical manner without compromising the ability of the majority to do the same.
But sustainability becomes more complex when it comes to modern humans and businesses. The term became popular when human beings ignored the fact that they share the planet with other creatures and forgot that future generations are supposed to be using the remaining resources, or their lack thereof.
As for businesses, sustainability is directly related to greed in my opinion. It is obvious that most businesses today survive by cutting corners and exploiting resources to make more money.
Q: Do you believe that BIRD can influence maximum people to turn to sustainable packaging? How will your company lead from the front?
A: BIRD Collaborative is an experiential brand; our products are not only sustainable but also functional and beautiful.
Remember that last paper straw you sipped through? How was that experience? By selling only Premium Sustainable Products, or what we call PSPs, BIRD was able to attract the top F&B concepts and more than 30% of luxury hotel brand names in the UAE. (The main feature of Premium is that our products are functional and do not look or feel like plastic and in terms of Sustainability they leave no microplastics behind)
Our love for innovation and sustainability is what sets BIRD apart and contributes to our growth in the UAE market, we have plans to start a manufacturing plant in the UAE to cater to a broader audience.
Q: When it comes to Sustainable Packaging, how important is awareness?
A: Awareness is the heart of change but is not always effective. In today's convenience-driven “throw-away culture”, strict laws are what is truly needed in order to enforce sustainable packaging for both businesses and consumers.
BIRD's vision is to change the average behaviour of businesses to venom-conscious corporate citizens and that's why we are loved by all the luxury brands that buy disposables from us.
Q: It has been noticed that bigger companies may sometimes use sustainable packaging material in excess, where smaller compact packaging is sufficient. How does one cater to this issue?
A: A sustainable packaging strategy is not a “one-to-one” switch between plastic and sustainable alternatives, it's a transition that requires training, design and operational changes. My guess is that there are two main reasons for companies falling into the trap of overusing sustainable packaging.
Any transition comes with a learning curve and when it comes to sustainable packaging the challenges are manageable.
Q: How do you believe customers can play a better role in ensuring that sustainable packaging is opted for, over regular packaging?
A: I have a lot of faith that millennials and Gen z (recently named iGen) would play a big role in putting pressure on businesses to use sustainable packaging and influencing governments to enforce laws and regulations related to plastic use.
Considering that in just 30 years there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean, it will be a fight for survival that's worth pursuing by everyone.
Q: What are the 5 fundamentals of sustainable packaging according to you?
A: I can give three off the top of my head:
Q: FMCG companies are positing to be sustainability-conscious quite often. Do you believe they are living up to their environmental obligations or is it just another idea that becomes a part of a marketing gimmick?
A: This is a very big question! But in short, a lot is at stake for the large FMCG companies, while I have no doubt that they have every intention to clean up the plastic epidemic they have created, the chemical industry dictates the rules here. For decades the sustainability trend was not big enough for the chemical industry to “allow” the transition, which in turn forced FMCGs to greenwash to attract the eco-conscious consumer and sell them at a premium, a lot of them still do.
But since sustainability, today is a multi-billion-dollar mega-trend we will start seeing more and more real sustainable alternatives which will allow big FMCGs to genuinely reduce their carbon footprint.
Q: Large amounts of packaging produced today cannot be recycled in existing recycling systems and this is a fact that cannot be denied. How then does one think and aim for an eco-friendly world with minimal environmental impact?
A: Recycling is the scam of the decade; it was put in place to sell more plastic. They knew that plastic was bad and they had to find a way to delay the outcry, and now we are witnessing it again with “compostable bioplastics” which require special composting facilities to disintegrate and these composting facilities are almost nowhere to be found.
91% of plastic is not being recycled and I would say 99% of bioplastic is not being composted.
R&D is constantly required, and taxes must be imposed on plastic packaging and other single-use plastic products, high enough to take them out of the category of being cheap and convenient!
Just like high taxes are imposed on tobacco (the main cause of cancer) to reduce its use and generate revenues to fund healthcare programs. Plastics (killing everything around us) must be heavily taxed to fund real plastic-alternative technologies.
Q: What are the key challenges that regulatory bodies face? How can it be tackled?
A: I will not go into the politics of things, but they definitely face massive challenges. In a somewhat relevant topic, today we see the collapse of green energy in the face of gas shortages in the western world. It's a very complicated topic.
Q: Why are you so inspired by the concept of sustainable packaging? Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey. Do also share your favorite book/quote.
A: It’s not about being inspired, it’s more about the right thing to do. If everyone takes a second to think about their purchasing habits, who are benefiting, where is the money going etc. the world could change. I read this somewhere and it puts things into perspective, “Buying a couple of plastic bottles a day is not the end of the world, said 8 billion people”.
Having spent two years on an island called Masirah, on the east coast of Oman, in the middle of nowhere I learned how important it is to make choices that bring a little joy into my life.
In 2017, awareness presented itself to me in the cruellest form ever. On a beautiful sunny day, a giant humpback whale or what was left of it got washed up on the shore just a few miles away from where I was staying. The whale was cut in half and I could clearly see what was later confirmed as “large amounts of plastic compressed in its guts”. I also learned that when marine animals consume plastic, it gives them a fake feeling that they are full, and this leads to starvation and slow painful death. When you see something like that, you can’t help but ask yourself if our single-use convenience is worth all this death and suffering.
And if the CEOs of the multibillion-dollar industries that we support on daily basis could really understand the depth of the issue. This incident led me to start 4-Masirah, a plastic-awareness campaign aimed at educating the locals of the island about the dangers of plastic, this also intrigued me to learn about plastic alternatives which eventually led to the birth of the UAE-based BIRD Collaborative.