Dubal publishes first sustainability report

Designed to inform stakeholders about DUBAL's initiatives to safeguard the company's sustainability for the future, the report follows the internationally accepted guidelines detailed within the Global Reporting Initiative ('GRI') Mining and Metal Supplement Pilot Version 1.0 (February 2005) while simultaneously aiming to satisfy the AA 1000 Assurance standards.

It covers the company's economic contributions, environmental impact and social performance statistics from 2004 to 2007, with specific emphasis on the 18-month period to 31 December 2007.

Abdulmunim Bin Brek (General Manager: Engineering, Expansion & EHS), who presented the first copy of the printed report to Abdulla Kalban (CEO) on Wednesday 23 July 2008, described the document as a transparent expression of DUBAL's accountability to its various stakeholders.

'This report demonstrates DUBAL's determination to review the company's performance and publicly report its progress on a regular basis,' said Bin Brek.

'As such, we consider it an essential forum for effective engagement with all our stakeholders - from our shareholders and employees through our suppliers and customers to the community, government departments, non-governmental organizations and the media. It also provides a valuable management tool for us to measure and monitor DUBAL's progress in terms of triple bottom line reporting, by collating data and statements of key issues and related management approaches.'

Kalban concurred, explaining that sustainable development is about ensuring that the business remains viable and contributes long-term benefits to society by taking the company's social, environmental and economic impacts into consideration at all times. 'At Dubal, we acknowledge that the company has both business and sustainability dimensions, and that the company does not operate in isolation. To the contrary, we are keenly aware that our environmental and social performances are critical success factors. Accordingly, we have adopted a holistic business strategy that is based on a sustainable business philosophy, so as to realize value for all our shareholders,' Kalban said.

Dubal's Sustainable Development Report is in keeping with a worldwide trend towards sustainable development reporting (also known as corporate responsibility reporting).

It's a move that, in effect, provides a common reference base that transcends industry and sector boundaries, allowing companies and their stakeholder audiences to assess and benchmark their sustainability performance through comparison of statistical and other information.

'The key message in DUBAL's sustainable development strategy is the company's believe that the safety and health of people - both employees and the surrounding community - are our fundamental corporate responsibility,' says Kalban. 'This is encapsulated in our quest to achieve 'No harm to people and no harm to environment'.

This commitment includes an overriding goal of zero lost time injuries, towards which we have made good progress - the lost time injury frequency rate, measured per million man hours, was 0.23 in 2007 compared to 2.31 in 2004.

It also embraces a drive to minimize the impact of our operations on the environment, where Dubal is well ahead of industry-wide initiatives to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases in particular.'

Bin Brek concludes by advising that Dubal's intention is to produce a Sustainable Development Report on a regular basis from now onwards.

The finished report will also be uploaded onto the company website in due course.