88% of the Middle Eastern professionals vote for greener offices

88% of the Middle Eastern professionals vote for greener offices

The online poll reveals that although most employees support environmental friendliness, they don’t quite know how to put it into effect.

June 15, 2010 2:28 by Rasha Reslan

Dubai, UAE, 15 June 2010: A large majority of professionals in the region wish to witness a shift towards greener offices in their workplace, revealed a recent poll conducted by Bayt.com, the Middle East’s number one job site. The poll found that an astonishing 88% of employees would prefer to work in greener offices, while only 10% said that it did not really matter to them.

The “Green offices in the Middle East” poll was conducted in order to assess the significance of environmental friendliness for companies operating in the Middle East. It also examined the environmentally friendly practices that are currently being put to use by employers and explored employee attitudes towards initiating greener offices in the region.

“This poll has given a remarkable insight into professionals’ attitudes in the Middle East with regard to environmental friendliness. The fact that the vast majority consider having a greener office a vital illustrates the significance of this study,” commented Rabea Ataya, Chief Executive Officer, Bayt.com.

Among the key points addressed during the poll, 46% of the respondents said that they are greatly concerned with and interested about “green” issues, while only 8% said that they were not concerned at all. Interestingly, over a quarter of professionals surveyed (27%) revealed that they did not know enough about the subject.

Similarly, while only 16% of professionals stated they were aware of measures needed in order to establish a green workplace, more than half of them (57%) were not familiar with the concept, but were interested in learning more. This comes as no surprise since only 22% of the professionals surveyed have ever been invited to a lecture or awareness campaign about green offices, while the an overwhelming 78% had never attended such events..

“These findings show that professionals in the region do take actual interest in adopting environmentally friendly practices. However, many of them have never been introduced or exposed to such concepts, which is an issue that clearly needs to be addressed in the Middle East,” stated Ataya.

when asked if working in greener offices would increase their origanisational loyalty, more than half of the respondents (52%) stated it definitely would as it would make them feel part of a greater noble cause.

Establishing environmentally friendly practices in the Middle East appears all the more urgent, since only 35% of the current employers actually make a conscious effort to foster such practices in the workplace- according to professionals surveyed-, while 30% don’t bother at all. Alarmingly, only 4% of employers encourage recycling paper, while 30% choose not to adopt any form of environmentally friendly action.

Respondents were finally asked whether they were willing to take steps to promote a greener workplace in their company. While 69% expressed their sincere willingness, 20% of them agreed that they did not know where to start or how to incorporate such practices into their work environment.

Data for the ‘Green offices in the Middle East’ online poll series was collected between the period of April 16 and June 4 2010 with a total of 8506 respondents from across the Middle East. This and other Middle East human resources research is available online at www.bayt.com.