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The Report is based on Dubai Properties Group's definition of Corporate Responsibility. The company considers it not only a matter of philanthropy, but an ethical obligation to reduce the negative impact the company's operations might potentially have on the Environment and increase the positive influence on the Market, the Communities and the People.
Mohammed Binbrek, Group CEO of Dubai Properties Group, said:
"The current global economic crisis has highlighted once again that stability and long term viability are the core factors that should be closely considered while charting the annual growth and financial achievements of an organisation. Viability cannot be achieved in the absence of responsibility, and this is why we decided to proceed with the release of our first Corporate Responsibility Report, even in these turbulent times."
"The determination of our staff members has ensured the release of this report, which has listed our accomplishments, was achieved in a responsible manner. Now, we are even more committed to be ranked among the best in the world in Corporate Responsibility in our sector and aim to continue as a pioneer among UAE's business community. We are confident many more regional corporations will work towards collectively increasing the level of transparency and accountability on topics related to Corporate Responsibility," he added.
The Dubai Properties Group Corporate Responsibility has detailed the achievements of the group in four core areas during the last year.
Under the Society segment, nearly 150 Dubai Properties Group employees volunteered to donate blood while the group itself spent over Dhs7m in employee medical insurance during the year.
Under Environment, employees successfully recycled over 28 tonnes of office waste, while DPG deployed environmental friendly substances (such as Inergen) for fire extinguishing systems and utilised Green Building programme in three major sites, one of which will comprise 73% green space.
Under the Marketplace category, DPG established 'Accountability' as one of its Brand Values, trained over 22% of its employees on brokerage laws and conducted 36 inspections and audits to suppliers.
In the People segment, DPG achieved zero fatal accidents for employees, conducted an appraisal process for 100% of its staff, trained over 834 of them and received 495 suggestions from employees, of which nearly 10% dealt with CR issues.
In order to successfully bring out a report on par with global standards, DPG particularly focused on the balanced representation of all areas of Corporate Responsibility and presented over 76 quantitative indicators, utilised the reference of 61 GRI indicators and set 26 targets for 2009 to increase transparency.
DPG also applied international guidelines on Corporate Responsibility, such as the GRI Guidelines and the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) model.
Amsterdam-based Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) offers a quick fix to companies for vexing corporate responsibility issues. According to GRI, an effective CR strategy requires a pairing of meaningful stakeholder engagement and an effective internal management system backed up by an effective feedback loop. In addition, sustainability reporting forms an integral component of any CR management system.
Posted by Rana Mesbah
