As businesses and corporates across the Gulf become more aware of global warming and its threat to the environment, a reputed Bahraini dealer in heavy equipment and construction machinery aims to become a pioneer by embracing green practices into the very fabric of its working culture.

The initiative will also see Gulf Equipment & Technology (GET) become the first company in Bahrain to win ISO (International Organization for Standardization) certification for these efforts, says managing director Bassim Al Alawi.
“We have started working towards becoming the first environmentally green company in Bahrain,” he says. “We are aiming for a new environmental certification covering the use of energy resources, which the ISO is expected to launch in the first quarter of this year.”
Under the process, GET will completely retrofit its facilities, installing energy-efficient lighting, solar cells and wind turbines. Plastic bags will be taboo as with the excessive use of paper, while the fax machine will be consigned to history and replaced by electronic mail. Oil disposal techniques will be further refined, calling cards made from recycled paper, and materials and products sourced solely from environmentally-friendly suppliers.
GET will also ensure that all vehicles within the company are less than 10 years old, while only purchasing vehicles which emit reduced carbon emissions.
“In short, we will completely change the way we operate,” says Al Alawi, who believes that all people should have a sense of social responsibility. “If I don’t protect my environment, who will?”
With a targeted completion date of 2010, GET is putting its money where its mouth is by allocating five per cent of its net profits towards the green initiative. “We are leaders through performance and therefore must stay one step ahead of the competition not only in sales but other areas as well,” Al Alawi says. “We were the first to get ISO 9002 (in heavy operations) and we hopefully will be the first to achieve this new certification.”
GET’s pedigree stretches back to 1963 when its parent Al Alawi Factories was set up, with the heavy machinery division first operating as the ‘commercial department’ before taking on its current identity.  Today, GET serves a “very well diversified” client base across the public and private sector with earthmoving machinery, compressors, generators, air tools, compaction and concrete pavers, mobile lighting towers, aerial and mastclimbing work platforms, diesel engines, material hoists, forklifts, truck-mounted cranes, and pneumatic and hydraulic components.
Reputed international brands within its portfolio include JCB, Atlas Copco, Clark, Fassi, Dynapac, Himoinsa, Parker, UpRight, Hatz Diesel and Alimak Hek.
Meanwhile, business in 2007 was been excellent, according to Al Alawi. “Our sales nearly doubled over the previous year but our profits have been hit by a weak dollar. Our products are sourced from Europe and as we are invoiced in sterling pounds, euros or Swedish kroners we’ve had to absorb a lot of currency fluctuations.”
Across the board, sales of machinery and equipment were robust with more than 200 heavy machines exchanging hands, with the best-sellers continuing to be JCB’s 3CX, 4CX and Loadall units.
Looking ahead, Al Alawi predicts that the market will remain buoyant on the back of booming economies, high oil prices and a raft of projects being executed into the next decade. “Everybody’s busy and there is enough business for everyone. If I had 50 more JCBs, I’d sell them all. Demand is outstripping supply across the world – China and India have absorbed so many machines that factories cannot cope with this demand.”
Bahrain, in particular, offers tremendous scope for growth, he says, arguing that the kingdom needs to “virtually rebuild” its infrastructure – roads, power and water utilities, et al – to cope with a population explosion.
Indeed, latest projections from Bahrain’s Central Planning Unit show that the country’s population is expected to double from 742,000 to 1.29 million over the next two decades!
However, Al Alawi remains critical of standards in the Gulf saying that the industry needs to design and build structures that will last a lot longer than today’s generation of buildings. “We build for 30 years while in Europe the structures last centuries.”
And when asked about the race by builders in the Gulf towards the heavens, Al Alawi is betting that mile-high skyscrapers may well remain pie in the sky for now. “We are currently testing the limits at 700 m and we would need a new generation of building materials, ceramics and glass to cope with building sway and structural stresses at heights of 1,600 m. We may have the technology, but we just don’t have the materials as yet.”