101 Respire Lounge in Saudi Arabia

Team 34 Poster

Team Reflection

Respire Lounge is a unique eco-friendly café in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, designed to promote sustainable practices through innovative technologies. Established during the pandemic, Respire Lounge integrates environmental technology, such as solar-powered refrigerators, Tesla charging stations, and a reverse vending machine that rewards customers with free coffee for recycling plastic bottles. This initiative, led by founder Ohoud Al-Shamikh, aims to foster environmental responsibility in Saudi Arabia by providing an experience with green technology. The company has gained attention, particularly on social media and news outlets, for its creative approach to eco-conscious living.

After learning about Respire Lounge and their sustainable innovations, it is clear that this business aligns with the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) framework. The TBL integrates three essential aspects, including people, planet and profit, in a holistic model that values social and environmental responsibility alongside economic success (Burga, 2022). The People aspect of the TBL emphasizes the importance of social responsibility and creating a positive impact for employees, customers and the community (Burga, 2022). Respire Lounge exemplifies this by fostering a welcoming and inclusive environment that prioritizes the well-being of both customers and staff. Their use of air washers ensures a clean and healthy atmosphere, benefiting the health of everyone who visits. Additionally, they provide natural, high-quality food, which appeals to health-conscious consumers. Beyond this, Respire Lounge also actively engages with its community by hosting events such as art classes, yoga sessions, and book clubs, offering spaces for community connection and enrichment. The planet component of TBL focuses on environmental responsibility and reducing ecological impact (Burga, 2022). Through utilizing solar energy, offering electric vehicle chargers, the recycling machine and the air washers, Respire Lounge is committed to operating responsibility and reducing its ecological impact through minimizing carbon emissions and reducing plastic waste. Finally , the profit aspect of TBL acknowledges the importance of financial sustainability to thrive in the long term (Burga, 2022). By prioritizing eco friendly and community focused values, Respire lounge has created a competitive edge in the market, gaining revenue through strong brand loyalty and incentives. This not only enhances profitability but also ensures that Respire Lounge can continue its operation and impact in a sustainable manner as they use part of their profits to be able to fund these innovations.

By integrating People, Planet, and Profit into its operations, Respire Lounge has created a brand that values more than just financial success. Their efforts in social engagement, environmental innovation, and placing customers first, demonstrates that by prioritizing all three pillars of the TBL, businesses can achieve long-term success while fostering positive impacts on society and the environment.

Everyone will have their own perspective on how this experience may influence our behaviour in similar situations in the future. However, we can conclude that, after learning about the initiatives and solutions Respire Lounge provides for the world, it is evident that we will become more mindful of the environment in our activities that could potentially lead to pollution. In some situations, we may even find ways to prevent it. If we ever get to become business people in the future, after completing this project, it is no surprise that we will strive to make a positive impact and contribute to creating a sustainable environment. We also learned that it is possible to contribute to meaningful change by incorporating purpose in our work through the importance of aligning our professional goals with a commitment to positive impact. This perspective will impact how we approach challenges and opportunities in our future careers, reminding us to always consider how our actions can contribute to a greater good.

The learnings in our courses supplemented our teamwork by providing us with common understanding of key concepts, which allowed us to be more efficient and cohesive in our discussions and decisions. The diverse perspectives we each brought from our classes also encouraged more ideas and stronger problem-solving capabilities. By learning from each other’s backgrounds, we developed a deeper understanding of the values, norms, and practices of different cultures, especially in Saudi Arabia.

Every Friday at 3pm, Madrid time, the whole group would meet via zoom to discuss the future tasks and organize the work for the project. At the end of each meeting, Angelina would take a screenshot that was then later published in the Google Classroom. Each task was organized effectively so everyone would contribute the same amount of time, preventing any unfairness. Since Respire Lounge is a company based in Saudi Arabia, Minirah and Ghadeer conducted the interview with the CEO of the company. After finishing the interview, they translated the conversation from Arabic to English so the other team members could understand the questions and answers that were asked. Angelina and William then worked on the story about Respire Lounge,focusing on the company’s innovations and benefits to the environment. Finally, Gorka and Pablo created a poster featuring the most important points related to the company’s commitment to sustainability. They also completed the final reflection of the project.

Managing communication was not an issue for us, as we all spoke English very well. This was a huge success for us, as it ensured we understood each other without any issues. Furthermore, choosing the company was an easy task to handle. The fact that Munirah and Ghadeer’s have a close relationship with the CEO of Respire Lounge has made this project much easier to work on. Also, the rest of us added global perspectives, helping the team to analyze how Respire Lounge’s concept might appeal internationally. While we did not have any sort of significant problems during the duration of the project, the only issue that may have impacted the team would have been the time difference. At first, finding the right time to conduct the weekly meeting was difficult because each team member has a different schedule. Thankfully, we were able to coordinate a time to schedule the meeting that worked with everyone, and was able to stay consistent for four weeks straight.

Individual Reflections

Angelina Mezzabotta

As a member of this virtual team, I found this experiential activity to be a very rewarding experience. Initially, I was nervous about navigating the various cultural dynamics within the group and how the differences in communication, styles, perspectives, and expectations might create challenges. However, by actively listening and showing genuine respect for each team member’s viewpoint and contributions, I found that this approach helped foster a supportive environment. This environment allowed me to feel comfortable sharing my ideas and being confident that they would be met with openness and respect from my team members. To manage our collaboration effectively, we began each meeting by setting up an agenda, which provided us structure and kept us focused on our goals. I found that using WhatsApp and Zoom also aided in our communication, ensuring that everyone could contribute regardless of our location and time zone. These platforms allowed for real time discussions and quick follow up messages, which helped overcome the distance between us and kept us all connected. Fortunately, we were lucky enough to be able to establish a weekly meeting time that was able to accommodate everyone’s busy schedules and at a suitable time of day. This regular and predictable schedule allowed us to maximize our productivity as a team. Overall, I felt that the experience strengthened my adaptability, communication skills, and ability to work inclusively in a diverse team setting.

Munirah Alsubaie

This project has been a unique and exciting journey. I was excited about the opportunity to interact with colleagues from diverse cultural backgrounds. This diversity was a new window into the world, allowing me to understand the impact of culture on thinking and action. The challenges were simple and insignificant, such as the challenges of reconciling viewpoints and organizing regular meetings. I learned a lot during this experience, I learned to listen carefully and be open to others’ opinions, and I was able to discuss ideas openly, which helped build trust and foster a spirit of collaboration. Personally, this project has had a huge impact on me. My self-confidence has increased, and I have learned how to work within an international team. I have become more open and understanding of differences, and I have acquired new skills in communication and negotiation. These skills will undoubtedly be useful to me in my future career.

Ghadeer Alzamil

After completing this project with my group I have to say this is an incredible experience to learn and get to know people from other parts of the world that have different ways of working than you do. I am glad I got to have this project because it is not common to work with people from different universities. I believe the way we managed to do the project was very organized due to the fact that everyone helped to make this task work. Besides, each member of the group was willing to work, no one skipped the weekly meetings where each one of us got to talk and shared their ideas when organizing the work. Even though we are from places that are very far from each other, we had a successful management of communication, texting each other when needing help, providing solutions to problems also. In conclusion, I think that the project was a victory, providing good team work by each one of us.

William Glatzmayer

Throughout this project I was brought many new experiences and was given the opportunity to collaborate with people across the world. Going into this project I was a little nervous as I didn’t know what to expect when meeting people from other countries that I have little knowledge about. During our first meeting, as a group we were able to come up with a communication method that worked for us all, as well as finding a time for all of our future meetings. We were all able to communicate our thoughts and ideas freely as we had created a friendly and welcoming environment with one another. We all shared our numbers and created a whatsapp chat where we could message each other. In this chat, we were all super interactive and provided quick communication. When setting up times for meetings, there were the obvious time zone differences. With this obstacle, as a group we were able to narrow down and vote on our preferred times. This allowed us to find a time everyone was okay with and available for while ensuring it was fair for everyone. In the end, this project gave me the opportunity to learn and connect with other cultures and people which I am very grateful for. We all worked very well together and I would definitely do this again.

Anonymous 

After this month I can say that I really enjoyed this project. I couldn’t have wished for a better team. We work together, we help each other and this makes my experience great. I also think we did great in terms of the meetings. We all found a schedule that matched all of us and that made us able to perform at a good pace.I learned a lot about how different businesses can be successful at the same time they encourage themselves and each other to be more responsible with the environment. Even Though we finally decided to select the “Respire Lounge” company, I feel that all my teammates have amazon propositions and every option would have been great. That would not be possible if we weren’t only good at team groups, I strongly believe that all of us have individual capacities that when we put them to work together it worked out great. I´ m so grateful for the opportunity and I´m looking forward to working with them again.

References

Burga, R. (2022). The Integration of Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability into

Responsible Management. https://books.lib.uoguelph.ca/mgmt-3020/