Jeffrey Beyer, founder and managing director of Zest Associates: Each week, My Morning Routine looks at how a successful member of the community starts their day — and then throws in a couple of random business questions just for fun. Speaking to us this week is Jeffrey Beyer (LinkedIn), founder and managing director of Zest Associates. Edited excerpts from our conversation:

I’ve been a sustainability consultant for almost 20 years. I’m a committed environmentalist, but also somebody who understands the business realities of sustainability. Outside of my profession, I’m just a fun guy.

I founded Zest Associates in 2020 in Dubai as a sustainability consultancy that does two things. One side is policy and strategy work where we work with governments and agencies around renewable energy policy, energy efficiency initiatives, food security, and certification initiatives, for example. The other side is cleantech innovation support, where we work with innovators who have technologies or solutions ranging across a wide variety of fields that have a space to thrive in the Middle East, from wastewater treatment to desalination, green mining, and resource recovery. We help them enter the market, find clients and investment partners, and set up joint ventures.

I had a business in London — where I lived for around 10 years — before coming here, where I did a lot of global international policy work, helped to establish an Offshore Wind Center of Excellence, and started a cleantech venture capital fund. I wanted to bring that experience to the region, where I see a huge amount of potential to create change.

People here are quite open to good ideas, and they think big when it comes to sustainability and climate change. Paper straws aren’t going to cut it; you need to really pursue big initiatives, and I think the Middle East is open to listening to big ideas. I found it to be a very receptive environment for Zest.

You need to invest a lot in infrastructure in order to bring the energy from solar panels or wind turbines into the grid, and you need to learn how to operate a grid in a safe and reliable way with new and renewable energy. Just last week, I was in California and Texas, leading a delegation of high-level Saudi officials to learn about best practices from these two jurisdictions, because they’ve been able to integrate huge volumes of wind and solar. They’re deploying a lot of battery energy storage systems, and they’re also managing the challenges that come with data center and artificial intelligence loads, which are driving a huge amount of electricity growth around the world.

I think this is one of the great things about the energy sector — it’s a very collaborative space, especially when it comes to grid operations. A company in Texas isn’t really competing with one in Saudi — they’re both trying to solve the same problems and are able to share their learnings and their best practices with a real genuine interest for mutual exchange. That’s how some of these challenges are being overcome; by learning from others and seeing how they’ve dealt with challenges.

In terms of cleantech, what’s important is that it also needs to be economically attractive, easy to implement, and deliver better performance, while being better for the environment. There’s several cleantech innovations I like, including in the wastewater treatment and desalination space. Food security and desertification are also key for the region, given there’s a huge push from a policy perspective around food security.

I usually start my day with a high-protein vegetarian breakfast. I’m vegetarian, partly because meat in particular produces around 12 to 20% of global emissions and drives deforestation, so there’s a big environmental reason for me.

I’m most productive right in the morning when I first get to work, so I try to center myself for the day by looking at my calendar and prioritizing my tasks, so it’s almost like a daily check-in with myself where I set my intention for the day. It gives me a sense of control over my day and time.

My work is mostly split between Riyadh and Dubai, so I’m based at the Energy Ministry in Riyadh most days, but then do additional consulting back in Dubai. I fly a lot, which is really bad for the environment, but it’s also a reason why I’m really focused on sustainable aviation fuels.The Middle East is the best place in the world to develop sustainable aviation fuels. It’s got all the right components, so I’m really eager to push through some initiatives around SAF.

I usually work late, go home, and go to the gym. I like to cook, so I’ll usually cook a nice veggie-based meal every night. On the weekends, I like to go to the beach in Dubai, especially when the weather is a bit cooler.

I’m really passionate about international programs that try to solve challenges faced by a group of countries. I really like the idea of cross-fertilizing solutions and sharing them with other countries that are facing similar problems.

I want to try and create something that lasts, rather than doing piecemeal projects. I think forming initiatives and supporting other innovators to bloom and to bring their good ideas to the market and test them is really important. People really need someone to believe in them early on, and getting that first project is the hardest thing for innovators.

I’ve put together a concept for a demonstrator initiative around food security and desertification to attract innovators, prove the technical and commercial viability of innovations, and then help them scale up in the region. That’s something I’m very excited about. I’m generally quite passionate about food security and its relationship to sustainability.

I just finished a book a couple of days ago called What We Can Know by Ian McEwan. It’s set in 2130, and it’s kind of a bleak dystopian future. It’s a climate-ravaged world where society’s broken down. The book shakes you a bit and it reminded me of the purpose behind my work. With any job, you can wake up in the morning and it’s just a day at the office and you’re not always feeling really purpose-driven. Reading this book illustrated in a very human way how things turn out if we don’t actually address climate change.

Two pieces of advice I think have resonated with me; one is pretty simple, from my dad, and it’s to just be reasonable with everything in life. The second one from a professional perspective is one I learned from Al Gore, who had said there’s no silver bullet for climate change. It’s a buckshot approach where you just need to do everything all at once. There’s no single savior or a single technology or approach, but it’s everything all at once — and I think that this resonates very well with the UAE’s position around maximum energy, minimum emissions, and their approach to technologies that people around the world may not be as enthusiastic for.

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