On our second day in Riyadh, we toured the SABIC Home of Innovation. This space is just one of many SABIC locations throughout the country and the region. The main focus of the Home of Innovation is to foster better intra-regional economic development and business collaboration. Throughout our tour, were reminded of SABIC’s mission statement to “make tomorrow’s world better than today’s,” along with their commitment to making long lasting relationships with all of their partners, whether they are across the globe or just across the street. These cross regional collaborative projects are important to SABIC because of the movements within the region towards more economic diversification.

The SABIC projects that we were lucky enough to see up close during our tour were just highlights of the many projects that SABIC has worked on for the betterment of the Middle Eastern region. The most prominent of these projects was the solar panel advancement shown in the model Home of Innovation. This home has many international ecological certifications and achieved Platinum Leed status. It showcases a multitude of SABIC’s collaborative efforts with their partners in making it an impressive structure, both architecturally and environmentally. The solar panel project that we saw in the model home consisted of only 80 or so panels, compared to the “stadium full” that it would take to power a current Saudi home, as our guide so put it. The collaborative efforts at SABIC had developed the technology to better power the model home, and this research and technology will soon be able to be implemented into the houses around the region.

The solar panel project housed within the Home of Innovation is just one of the ways that SABIC is working towards both their goals for a more sustainable future along with creating more fruitful economic collaboration within the region. SABIC has already created for itself an incredible global presence, with partnerships stretching as far as China and the United States. SABIC also has steps in place to follow the Sustainable Development Goals outlined by the United Nations. However, a focus on the immediate Middle East region remains as one of the forefronts in SABIC projects. They are a presence in many Saudi universities and have large research facilities at KAUST. These spaces allow for local research and development to take place instead of happening outside of the region. They also create opportunities for students from the region to have a chance to work on projects that will affect their immediate home country.

These efforts made by SABIC to further develop more cross regional collaboration are nothing short of impressive. All of us on our tour of the Home of Innovation facility enjoyed learning about the initiatives that SABIC has in place to create a more sustainable future. These initiatives and project have a global focus, of course, but SABIC’s commitment to the Middle East is clearly at the heart of all the work that they do. SABIC is poised to become even more of a leader of collaboration, development, and sustainability within the region as more and more of their projects come to fruition.

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Hi! I’m Katie Grandelli, and I’m in my third year of studies at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia. I’m majoring in International Studies and double minoring in History and Economics. I was fortunate enough to come on this trip with Gateway KSA through my affiliation with the National Council on US-Arab Relations and their Model Arab League program. This trip has been extremely beneficial to me as a scholar of the Middle East because it gave me such a new perspective on the region that is so often just a passing sentence in modern media. This perspective came from all of the different people we met while on the trip, from our guides at historical sites to locals of the cities we visited. I’m so grateful that I had the chance to experience Saudi Arabia with this program, and I cannot wait to get another chance to return to the Kingdom.