du reiterates commitment to sustainable development goals

DUBAI / Emirates Business

Reiterating its commitment to serving as a responsible corporate citizen, du, from Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC), has announced the release of its 2018 annual sustainability report. Raising the bar for sustainability benchmarks in the UAE, du’s three core pillars reflect the company’s desire to deve-lop strategies that make its business more innovative and responsible.
Prepared in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 Comprehensive guidelines, du attempts to measure performance against its sustainability pillars, material sustainability issues and four prioritised sustainable development goals: decent work and economic growth; industry, innovation and infrastructure; reduced inequalities; and sustainablecities and communities.

‘Robust Sustainability Pillars’
“Setting a robust sustainability roadmap is best achieved through collective processes that incorporate all stakeholders, including employees, investors, and customers,” said Abdulwahed Juma, EVP Brand & Corporate Communications, du.
“At du, we address sustainability by thoughtfully engaging with a range of stakeholders to establish a clear set of pillars that will effectively guide our business strategy and operations towards responsible corporate initiatives akin to the directives of the UAE leadership,” he added.

‘ICT for Everyone’
By empowering the communities through the profound benefits of ICT, du continues to set the precedent for technological enablement in the UAE.
Cementing its position as a tech-enabler through innovating technology for good, du’s #PostWisely initiative continues to have a resounding influence on UAE citizens and residents by highlighting the perils of negative and unethical online behaviour. Through the second instalment of du’s #PostWisely Public Service Announcement, themed “If it were your pain, would you share it?” the company effectively raised awareness and inspired further conversations around conscientious social media usage.
As a follow up to the second phase of the campaign, du cooperated with the Ministry of Education to launch anti-bullying programmes in schools across the UAE. This resulted in hundreds of university and school students taking part in sessions aimed at raising online awareness. du also partnered with Disney around the launch of the “Ralph Breaks the Internet” movie to educate children of the UAE about cybersecurity.
du also recently renewed its BabNoor partnership with Flagship Projects for three more years to ensure the UAE’s special needs communities have improved access to the positive impacts of the revolutionary communication app. Reaching over 2600 children, the BabNoor app includes an Arabic interface and vocabulary, cloud- based libraries of content and picture cards, as well as ongoing updates to improve app based on monitored case studies.

The digital services landscape also received a transformative boost with the inauguration of the du Idea Hub. Providing a platform for the development and showcase of ICT innovations, the Idea Hub is playing a role in driving digital transformation for government entities across the UAE and bringing the smart city vision to life.
du’s network infrastructure is also one step closer to being 5G ready in 2019 to enable the UAE’s consumers, enterprise ecosystems and government sector to benefit from an array of new use cases such as Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), e-health, Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications and critical communications to enable smart cities and Internet of Things (IoT).

‘Sustaining Happier Communities ‘
Volunteering efforts by du employees made a large impact on the UAE’s communities. The telco’sMawaed Al Rahman initiative was once again the flagship volunteering activity for the year, which saw the packing and distribution of thousands of food boxes for families in need across the UAE.
Throughout Ramadan, volunteers from all walks of life joined the Mawaed Al Rahman initiative by packing and distributing boxes of essential food items for unprivileged families across the UAE.
In an effort to encourage citizens of the UAE to count their blessings, du made an immense impact on the country’s heritage and culture by asking its customers to reflect and realise the Happiness, Harmony, Safety and Opportunity afforded to them by living in the UAE.
du also partnered with the Emirates Foundation and their volunteers to distribute 5,000 UAE flags to engage residents in the build-up to UAE Flag Day.

‘Ethical & Responsible ICT’
Environmentally, du has made large efforts in reducing its carbon footprint. From a network perspective, du invested in a number of energy efficient technologies to reduce consumption of energy through the power gird of diesel generators. As of 2018, du has 190 sites that now run on smart energy hybrid systems. This helps reduce diesel consumption by up to 50%.
Furthermore, to minimise environmental impact in non-technical sites, du’s energy-efficiency strategies focused on replacing current lights with LEDs in almost all places. In a continued effort to educate staff members and customers du has significantly reduced its paper trail by using recycled paper, reducing printing, and through encouraging the utilisation of e-billing.

‘Employee and Community Happiness Committee’
To further emphasize the significance of this report and other related activities within EITC, the company has recently launched an Employee and Community Happiness Committee. All members of this committee believe that a connected society is a happier and sustainable society. Henceforth, the mission is to develop capacityaround wellness, tolerance, CSR, sustainability and more, with an aim to help everyone at EITC work and strive in a happier environment.