Bringing sustainability to the core of UAE economy

Dubai / Emirates Business

Dubai Carbon has launched a new version of Sustainability Self-Assessment specifically focused on measuring the risk and exposure towards socio-environmental impacts thus allowing both public and private organisations to benchmark their resource efficiency amongst industries and peers. The launch was met with an overwhelming participation by the finance industry during an event at the Capital Club, DIFC. This tool is based on the need for organizations to stress testing their investment portfolios against international and local policies and regulations converging towards the need to take action towards climate change.
According to Dubai Carbon, the tool is a better fit for both private and public sector companies as it uses quantitative analysis and looks at sustainability from the three major aspects including environmental, economic and social. Many of the indicators used to measure performance are used in strategies such as the UAE Vision 2021, the Dubai Plan 2021 to name a few and correspond to international standards such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 Guidelines and applicable ISO standards.
Addressing the gathering, Christian Horvath, General Manager of Capital Club Dubai, commented: “Dubai Carbon’s self-assessment tool is a promising and a key tool for the private sector, as it enables businesses to assess the real impacts of their activities on the environment and socio-economic sectors. This will aid them in making informed decisions. We welcome Dubai Carbon’s efforts in bringing together both the public and private sector, in developing Dubai as a green economy.”
Ivano Iannelli, CEO of Dubai Carbon, stated that “the sustainability tool was developed with an aim of cultivating efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and leveraging the UAE entrepreneurship culture to further foster public-private partnership. Innovation and new best practices are making way in our business culture and new platforms are being created to support such projects from a cheaper capital to facilitated normative environments. The tool allows any entity to assess they position and accessibility towards such platforms that do require auditable sustainability standards”.
The UAE signed the Paris Accords on April 22nd, 2016 further enhancing their commitments towards a low carbon development and sustainability stewardship. It is envisaged that the signed treaty will trickle down to influence all to policy revisions and the overall culture of stewardship. The self-assessment tool is distributed at no cost and is an inevitable step towards achieving the sustainability goals set by the UAE, and will allow organisations in the private sector to benchmark where they stand in comparison with global best practices.
Furthermore, the tool has been specifically aligned to national plans and strategies such as the UAE Vision 2021, the Dubai Plan 2021 and the Dubai Integrated Energy Strategy 2030, to incorporate baselines and identify areas that are further relevant to entities based in the UAE. The tool is freely distributed and available online on Dubai Carbon’s website as of September 8.