Sustainability has, somewhere along the way, acquired a reputation problem. It became associated with lectures, linen, and a particular strain of dinner-party righteousness that made the whole enterprise feel like homework. In the UAE, sustainability is in the spotlight and planet-saving practices are being implemented across the country. Dubai recently hosted COP28; Abu Dhabi is home to Masdar City, a low-carbon community; and the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park has been named one of the largest renewable energy projects on the planet. The infrastructure for a more sustainable future is being built, to the surprise of most global onlookers, in this desert.
The actual substance of living more sustainably – how we dress, eat, travel, invest – is rather closer to the conversations we are already having than anyone tends to let on. This Earth Month, MOJEH details the ways in which you can incorporate sustainable practices into your daily life, and how the UAE makes it easier than ever.
Eating With Intention
A plant-forward diet is, according to researchers at Lund University, among the highest-impact personal choices one can make for the climate. It is an argument for eating more thoughtfully – which, in practice, tends to mean eating better – rather than cutting back.
The city is making plant-based diets easier by the season. Jumeirah Zabeel Saray grows its own produce on-site through a hydroponic farm on the Palm, supplying its restaurants with herbs and crops harvested steps from the kitchen. The newly opened Jumeirah Eco Village at Madinat Jumeirah – where hydroponic farm meets immersive sustainability experience – is doing something new: making the food system visible and turning it into an educational experience for curious guests. Dibba Bay Oysters, farmed in UAE waters and now available across Dubai, have put this country on the gourmet food map. These are not consolation prizes for the conscientious diner. They are, frequently, the most interesting thing on the menu.
There is also something to be said for avocados being bought from a farm an hour drive away rather than one seven hours by air. The carbon difference is significant; the taste difference is noticeable; and the knowledge of where things come from – which farm, season, and method – is the kind of thing that makes a person considerably more interesting at dinner. Farm-to-table dining in this city has grown well beyond a trend. It is, at its best, an education in how good food actually works and it comes with the not inconsiderable side effect of making one feel rather ahead of the curve.
Bringing Sustainability Home
In a climate that demands air conditioning for the better part of eight months, home energy is a conversation with particular relevance here – and one the UAE is taking seriously at every scale. The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park reached 3,860 megawatts of clean energy capacity in 2025, making it one of the largest renewable energy projects in the world and already supplying over a fifth of Dubai’s electricity. In Abu Dhabi, Masdar City has spent nearly two decades pioneering sustainable urban design, with buildings that use 40 percent less energy than the city average through passive cooling and smart architecture. The Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 sets a target of 100 percent clean energy by mid-century.
At home, the changes that compound most usefully are also the least dramatic: smart thermostats, LED lighting, cold-water cycles for most laundry, solar panels where buildings permit. All of it feeds into a grid that is becoming cleaner by the year. Done once and done properly, it requires no further thought and seamlessly integrates into your lifestyle.
Managing Your Wardrobe
The fashion industry is responsible for roughly 10 percent of global carbon emissions every year – a figure that surpasses, quite remarkably, the combined emissions of all international flights and maritime shipping on the planet. The average garment is now worn fewer than ten times before it is discarded. Which does, on reflection, reframe the concept of investment dressing entirely.
The case for buying less and buying better has never been stronger. A well-made piece worn across several seasons makes more sense by every measure than its disposable equivalent retired mere weeks later. The secondhand luxury market has never been more interesting, and Dubai has its own answer to it. The Luxury Closet, founded here in 2011 and stocked with Chanel, Rolex, Louis Vuitton and more, has been making the case for pre-loved as the more considered choice for over a decade. At Dubai Fashion Week, regional designers – Reemami among them – are building collections on GOTS-certified organic cotton and recycled materials without any sacrifice in elegance.
Getting Around (And Getting Your Steps In)
Dubai is a city of expats and within a region of diaspora – if you are living here, the people you love are almost certainly not. Family in Beirut, university friends in London, a sister in Riyadh, parents somewhere further still. The idea of flying less sits differently when a flight is not a holiday but the primary way of staying connected to the people who matter most.
What is worth thinking about is the difference between travel as something intentional and travel as something reflexive. If you are flying to Asia, consider whether one longer, more immersive trip – a week in Japan followed by a few days in Vietnam, or a slow journey through a part of the world you have never properly explored – might serve you better than three separate return flights over the course of a year. The same distance, the same skies, but a richer experience and a fraction of the footprint. The flights are going to happen. Making them mean something is the more interesting conversation and thoughtful decision.
For daily life in the city, the picture is more mind-boggling than most people realise. Dubai’s Metro carried nearly 295 million riders in 2025 – an average of 2.2 million people a day – making it one of the most-used rapid transit systems in the region. The cycling network has grown from a mere 6 kilometres in 2009 to 636 kilometres by end of 2025, with 57.3 million cycling trips taken last year alone. That growth recently earned Dubai a place in the Copenhagenize Index of the world’s top 100 cycling-friendly cities – the first city in the Middle East to make the list. The Careem Bike network now spans 210 stations across 49 communities, from the Marina to Downtown. The taxi fleet is already half hybrid, with full electrification on course for 2027. And on the horizon, The Loop – a planned 93-kilometre climate-controlled cycling and walking highway designed to make active travel viable year-round – signals where the city is headed.
Sustainable Spending
For those managing their money through savings, investments, a pension fund or perhaps a portfolio managed by a bank or adviser, the part that rarely comes up in conversation is this: much of that money is being invested on your behalf, in companies and industries you were never directly asked about. Some of those investments may well be in oil, gas, or other fossil fuel companies.
It is not a scandal. It is simply how conventional investment has always worked. But it is worth knowing – and worth asking about.
The good news is that in Dubai, the infrastructure to do something about it is actually there. The Dubai Financial Market has required companies to disclose their environmental and social practices since 2020. Emirates NBD has issued green bonds. Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank mobilised over $5.5 billion in sustainable finance by the end of last year. Sustainable investing is not a niche western concept making slow inroads into the region – it is already embedded in the financial architecture of this city.
The financial case is also increasingly difficult to dismiss. According to Morgan Stanley’s analysis of global fund data, $100 invested in sustainable funds in 2018 would be worth $136 today – against $131 in traditional funds over the same period. Doing the right thing and doing the smart thing have converged.
One conversation with a financial adviser. A few direct questions about where your money is actually going. It requires no lifestyle change, no sacrifice, and no new purchase, yet may be the most consequential.
