Dubai Dialogue discusses practical strategies to drive sustainable change

The Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Centre for Responsible Business organised the Dubai Dialogue – Realigning Business Models & Strategies to Achieve Sustainable Development, at the Westin, Al Habtoor City on Tuesday. It was attended by a large number of company representatives interested in corporate social responsibility and sustainability in the UAE and the region.

Held for the ninth year running, the annual Dubai Dialogue looked at mobilising businesses and other stakeholders towards playing a pivotal role in driving sustainable change through innovations, partnerships.

In his welcome address, Majid Saif Al Ghurair, Chairman, Dubai Chamber, stated that this unique event is an important platform bringing together businesses, government, community partners and other stakeholders to collaborate and discuss practical strategies to drive sustainable development.

“In line with the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, sustainability is currently at the top of the UAE’s agenda, as it remains one of the key goals under our country’s Vision 2021 plan,” said Al Ghurair.

He added, “On its part, Dubai is playing a major role in these efforts as the emirate’s aim is to become one of the top ten sustainable cities in the world after making considerable headway on implementing green building regulations, scaling up solar power capacity, and reducing wastage.”

Highlighting Dubai Chamber’s leading role in promoting sustainability amongst the business community, the Chairman of Dubai Chamber said, “As a representative of the private sector, Dubai Chamber is supporting Dubai’s sustainability mission by encouraging the local business community to play a pivotal role in driving sustainable change through innovation, partnerships and realignment of existing business models.

He further stated that Dubai Chamber’s Centre for Responsible Business offers a variety of educational, professional training and consulting services that are designed to build businesses’ capacity to implement corporate social responsibility and sustainability related initiatives.

The conference brought together business, government, community partners and other stakeholders who discussed how to start the process of operationalising and achieving sustainable development goals for UAE as they also looked at driving sustainable change through innovations, partnerships and realignment of existing business models through interactive discussions and best practice sharing.  

The various sessions at the conference discussed the Role of Leadership and Innovation, Climate Change Impacts and Risks for the UAE while also highlighting the theme of embedding diversity and social inclusion into the corporate culture.

The conference was actively participated by speakers from Community Development Authority, Quick Registration, Dow Water and Process Solutions, Middle East, Africa and Turkey, Veolia, CHEP Middle East, Blue LLC, Goumbook, Dry Docks, EWS-WWF, Six Construct, Standard Chartered Bank, Al Futtaim Carillion, Emirates NBD, Manzil and Apparel Group.

The dialogue sessions offered ample networking opportunities, new ideas and strategies for integrating social, environmental and national priorities for the private sector while it also allowed businesses to learn new things and to share their CSR and sustainable strategies.

The Centre for Responsible Business, which was formed in 2004 and celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2014, plays an important role in instilling a culture of responsible business in the UAE.

The Centre assists Dubai Chamber members to apply responsible business practices that enhance their performance and competitiveness.

It also provides research, training and events related to the concept of corporate social responsibility while raising the profile of Dubai as a sustainable business destination.

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