The UAE’s green economy reached a milestone this morning. At a ceremony at Expo City Dubai, the first cohort of companies was awarded the country’s inaugural Green Licence, presented by His Excellency Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri, Minister of Economy and Tourism, in partnership with Majra, the UAE’s National CSR Fund, and other founding partners of the Green Innovation District.
Six pioneering companies made up this first cohort:
- AirJoule Technologies
- Carbon Assurance
- Carbon Standard
- Polygreen
- RBT Collective FZ L.L.C
- WAT (We Are Tech)
For a framework launched only months ago, seeing real businesses cross the line and receive their licences from the Minister’s own hand marks the moment the Green Innovation District stopped being a plan and became a working reality.
What is the Green Licence?
Introduced in October 2025, the Green Licence is the first of its kind in the UAE, a dedicated framework for companies with demonstrated environmental, social and governance (ESG) credentials that are genuinely committed to green technology, clean tech and circular-economy activity. It sits at the heart of the Green Innovation District at Expo City Dubai, a federal initiative from the Ministry of Economy and Tourism and Expo City Dubai Authority.
Rather than a badge that companies simply apply for, the Green Licence is designed as a gateway: licence-holders join an ecosystem built around sustainable infrastructure, an on-site Green Intellectual Property Office, green-finance expertise, and a location engineered to help eco-driven businesses trial, scale and grow. The district is positioned as a catalyst for the UAE’s Net Zero 2050 ambitions and its broader push toward economic diversification.
Majra’s role is central: through initiatives like the Sustainable Impact Challenge and Future 100, it channels impact-driven enterprises and environmental projects toward the district, connecting sustainable innovation with responsible investment.
Meet the first cohort
The six companies span several of sustainability’s most important frontiers.
AirJoule Technologies brings a genuinely novel answer to water security. Its systems pull moisture from the air, harnessing waste heat from industrial processes to produce clean water, an especially valuable proposition in an arid climate, and one the company has already been demonstrating in Dubai’s demanding conditions.
WAT (We Are Tech) — a name familiar to Sustainable Dubai readers from our Green Innovators series — tackles the UAE’s fast-growing e-waste stream, giving old electronics a responsible second life through secure collection, data destruction, refurbishment and certified recycling.
RBT Collective is a sustainability consulting firm that designs circular systems to stop and reduce food waste, building closed loops where food and materials are reused rather than thrown away.
They’re joined by Carbon Assurance and Carbon Standard, both operating in the critical space of carbon measurement, verification and accountability, and Polygreen, working in environmental services and circular-economy solutions, rounding out a cohort that reflects the district’s ambition to gather decarbonisation, clean tech and circular innovation under one roof.
Together, they’re a snapshot of where the UAE’s green economy is heading: measurable impact, real technology, and businesses that treat sustainability as their core model rather than a marketing line.
Why it matters
The significance of this morning isn’t just six new licences. It’s proof of concept. A green-economy framework is only as credible as the companies willing to build under it, and this first cohort gives the Green Innovation District its founding stories.
For the UAE, the timing fits a clear national direction. With Net Zero 2050 as the north star and Expo City Dubai serving as a living test bed for nature-first innovation, the Green Licence gives environmentally serious companies a home, an ecosystem, and a signal to the wider market that sustainability and commercial ambition can grow together.
The Sustainable Dubai view
We’ve long argued that the UAE’s green transition will be built by companies that turn intention into measurable action, and it’s telling that WAT, a business we spotlighted in our Green Innovators series, is among this first cohort. Recognition like this is exactly what helps homegrown sustainability ventures scale.
This is a story we’ll be following closely. As the Green Innovation District grows and future cohorts earn their licences, expect to see more of the innovators shaping a greener UAE right here on these pages.
Congratulations to all six companies on this milestone.
Sustainable Dubai champions the people and companies building a greener UAE. Follow us for more on the innovators shaping the country’s sustainable future.
