Young firm's goal is role in climate rescue

The Life: Jourdan Younis is the founder of Alpin, a clean-technology consultancy started this year in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi's low-carbon development. He talks about the company's goal.

28-Feb-2012, Masder City, Abu Dhabi

Jourdan Younis, MBA, BSc, CMAA, LEED AP, PQP. Managing Director in Masdar City. Fatima AL Marzooqi/ The National
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Jourdan Younis is the founder of Alpin, a clean-technology consultancy started this year in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi's low-carbon development.
What's your plan for growing the start-up?
Let me just take a step back. You have growth here, but you also have tremendous growth potential elsewhere in the region, like in Qatar. Some people talk about the [2022 Fifa] World Cup. I don't care about the World Cup. The World Cup is 10 years in the future. There's sustainability guidelines which are being shaped right now. Right now there's a discussion about making them mandatory. This is huge, because you have all that growth which is coming. And we've also heard some rustlings in the wind about certain municipalities within Saudi Arabia.
Really?
That's why we decided to focus on this region. We believe it's underserved. We have some really good clients who have decided to come over with us to the new company, and they've been very instrumental in supporting us in our growth.
Right now, things are looking very positive. The macro trends are there, our clients are good and they have more upcoming projects, but I think it's too early to say how things are going to go.
Are you concerned about a slowdown in projects?
There's so many projects within the region that are going forward. And you have the push from the Government. You also have the private push as well, so there are a lot of key projects in the region which we have been part of [in] the last few years, and we will continue to be part of that.
And we try to augment that by teaching at American University of Sharjah, so we're trying to not just take from the market, but also give back to the market. So, I'm not really concerned about there being a market there.
What is it like to work in Masdar City?
You can bump into people here when you go for lunch. And then you have the university students here as well. That's why you move to a place like that - it's for that network, so you can bump into people and bounce ideas off them and possibly create something great.
* April Yee
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