5 minutes with John Irvine, MD, AVERDA Dubai

John Irvine, AVERDA

What does your role involve?

It is my responsibility to manage, organise and supervise all activity Averda undertakes within Dubai, Sharjah and the Northern Emirates, including unit functions and staff care. Additionally, it falls to me to ensure that the company’s strategic goals are achieved through marketing, direct identification of prospective clients, as well as performing all sales and public relations efforts.

What’s new for Averda this year?

The iaverda application that we launched [...]aims to encourage community participation in Averda’s clean-up efforts by allowing the community to capture problematic waste areas and alert us. We will launch this application in other markets shortly.

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We also launched the GCC’s first Reverse Vending Machine (RVM) [...] allowing consumers to participate in ‘doing good’ through recycling, and it is by far our most strategically linked project as we partnered HyperMedia to manage the advertising. Both companies together inspire the community to recycle and enlighten consumers to brands that reflect CSR in a positive manner.

We have a few projects lined up for the future, which will yet again set a benchmark within the industry, and we invite everybody to participate in our ventures, as we unite to make the world a greener place.

How did you arrive in the industry?

I entered into waste management purely by chance. My first job was in the retail sector working behind the scenes, supporting the core business. This led to an opportunity to enhance my education which was sponsored by my employer; I hold an MBA from Glasgow University and two diplomas; Environment and Development Planning [and]Environmental Policy. My managerial experience within the industry spans in excess of 28 years.

Do you find the industry has changed since you first joined?

The industry has certainly evolved since I first joined. Companies continuously explore new and improved ways of addressing the issues of waste, new recycling technologies and ways to sustain the environment. These modern ways of working only come with time as we, collectively as an industry, collaborate and mature – this co-operative approach is the reason why we continue to see tremendous growth in this specific industry.

Where do you see it in five year’s time?

[The environment and waste management industry] grows in parallel with the growth of the region. It is specifically the task of this industry to be innovative in its approach to cleaning up communities, as environmentally-friendly waste management is the way forward to a greener planet. It is easy to speculate that, in the next five years, technology will advance to allow us to become more environmentally sensitive in our operations.

We are leading the way in the technological tools we use to operate and the millions of people we serve every day,[in]reaching out to the community and propagating the environmental beliefs we have. We need to have the participation of the communities and governments which we service and work with respectively.

We are constantly looking to evolve and expand upon our service offerings and distribution, and it is our hope that, in five years’ time, we will have left an on-going impression on the people in the MENA and Levant regions, by acting as a positive influence to reduce the waste footprint.