Dubai Chamber honours 11 companies for their sustainability efforts

Encouraging companies that seek and foster sustainable business practices, the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry honoured 11 major organisations for their efforts to lead by example in corporate social responsibility and sustainability.

At a ceremony held at the Chamber premises today (Monday) the Dubai Chamber CSR Label were presented for the first time to, Apparel Group, Paramount Computer Systems, JRG International, Union Cooperative Society, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, and MAFDalkia Middle East LLC while HSBC Middle East, and ABB Group got it for the second time and Intercoil International, Emirates Gas, and Mashreq Bank received it for the third time.

In his welcome address during the presentation ceremony, H.E. Hamad Buamim, Director General, Dubai Chamber, congratulated the honourees for their dedication to integrate CSR into their governance and strategy while helping to spread awareness of the importance of CSR goals and objectives across Dubai’s business community.

"It is heartening to see the heightened interest in the initiative as well as the rise in the number of honourees whose number has reached 44 since the launch of the Dubai Chamber CSR Label as more companies are coming back for the second and third time to receive their due recognition for setting a clear and measurable standard for sustainable business practices," said H.E. Buamim.

He pointed out that the Dubai Chamber CSR Label has proved an effective tool to assess responsible business practices and enhance the company’s reputation in the marketplace as a CSR leader as this allows organisations to learn, assess, monitor and improve individual CSR strategies and practices while also to promote these schemes amongst their staff membersinternally as well aswith their stakeholders externally.

The Director General of Dubai Chamber further informed thatthis first-of-its-kind initiative in the Middle East region, developed by its Centre for Responsible Business, has been instrumental in encouraging organisations to incorporate CSR into their daily operations while also providing easy access to toolkits, networking seminars and training workshops to help companies adopt and implement their own CSR schemes.

He also said that the CSR Label is open to every type of organisation regardless of its size, culture or sector and can make a major difference to a company’s reputation, efficiency and productivity and its success dependents on how the CSR objectives are set and communicated to its staff and stakeholders.