Abu Dhabi Sustainability Group holds quarterly meeting

The Abu Dhabi Sustainability Group, ADSG, recently held its quarterly meeting. The meeting was attended by representatives from the group's member organisations and partners, where they reviewed the group’s progress to date and focused on the strategic plans going forward.

The meeting was hosted by the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi, EAD, and was split into two distinct sessions. In the first session, the group shared updates on activities, action plans and events for the upcoming year, as well as launching the sustainability capacity building programme 2017/2018. This programme is designed to assist group members develop their in-house capacities to both manage sustainability issues, as well as report on them. In addition, ADSG highlighted the key achievements of the ADSG Forum 2017 and announced the dates for the next Abu Dhabi Sustainable Business Leadership Forum 2018, to be held from 20th – 22nd February.

In the second half of the meeting, the Energy Institute shared key objectives of the upcoming Energy Flagship Pilot Project that will be jointly delivered in cooperation with EAD, which demonstrate the ADSG and its members’ commitment to providing critical, proactive support towards effective energy management.

ADSG recognised its partner United Nations Global Compact, UNGC, UAE during the meeting for their continuous support and valuable contribution to the ADSG forum 2016 & 2017 and the Hiwar session that was held on the Sustainable Development Goals in October 2016.

Commenting on that, Mr. Mahmoud Hesham El Burai, MENA Representative, Global Compact Network, United Arab Emirates, received the appreciation certificate on behalf of the UNGC said "The UAE Local Network is one of the fastest growing Local Networks worldwide, passionate to support the UAE’s Vision 2021. The partnership between ADSG and the UAE Local Network is a key example for collaboration and Global Goal 17 on partnerships. It is wonderful to see two platforms committed to corporate sustainability come together to support each other."

The meeting concluded with a sustainability reporting knowledge sharing session where ADSG members including EAD, ENEC, DLA Piper and Interserve shared their sustainability-reporting journey.

During the session, EAD and ENEC shared the benefit of using the ADSG Sustainability Maturity Assessment Tool, SMAT, as well as highlights from their sustainability and CSR strategy.

Hussain Madhi, Corporate Health, Safety, Environment and Sustainability Director at the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation, ENEC, said, "As an active member, ENEC is committed to supporting the ADSG and their initiatives. The results from completing the SMAT for the past three years proved beneficial to ENEC, they provided an overview of the current level of maturity of our Sustainability Programme, enabled an annual review of the changes to the organisations sustainability maturity as well as highlighting areas of significant improvement. The output from the SMAT also provided ENEC with recommendations of initiatives to consider for implementation and drive further improvements."

"By adopting an integrated approach to sustainability reporting, it has become part of business as usual and is allowing us to improve efficiency. We launched our latest Sustainability Progress Report earlier this year, and as we were five years in to delivery against our Sustainability Plan, over the last year we have undertaken a review of it to ensure it remains fit for the future. We’ve simplified it, we’ve made it more customer focused and we’ve set ourselves new and challenging aspirations," said Stuart Mee, Head of Sustainability at Interserve International.

Leen Abu Tawil, DLA Piper, added, "DLA Piper made a formal commitment to the Global Compact in February 2013 and last year the main focus was on further aligning our business model with the UNGC universal principles and integrating the adopted set of sustainable Development Goals into our strategic and daily operations. The effective implementation of the above is driven by the senior leadership team and shared by every DLA Piper office across the globe."

Huda Al Houqani, ADSG Director, said, "ADSG member organisations are focusing on a balanced approach that helps to achieve a longer-term and more sustainable returns on investment by supporting the community, protecting the environment, improving their employment practices and developing a more transparent business model. I am proud and very encouraged to see the momentum from all members on sustainability and transparency, with more members joining the group and participating in ADSG events and activities."

She added, "I am delighted to announce the launch of the sustainability capacity building programme 2017/2018 to promote sustainability management and best practices among ADSG members."

The ADSG, which was established on 2008, is proud to have grown from 15 founding members in 2008 to 50 members today. Members of the group are increasingly adopting sustainability principles, practices and issuing sustainability reports. Members have been supported with a tailor-made capacity-building programme. Over 35 organisations and more than 100 practitioners have received sustainability management and reporting training.