Shell Dubai sustainable development programme for 2004
Posted: 22 July 2003
Shell Dubai recently held a meeting with its stakeholders to discuss
the company’s Sustainable Development programme in the UAE
for the next year.
The meeting was attended by representatives from the WWF (World
Wide Fund for Nature), UNEP (United Nations Environmental Programme),
EEG (Emirates Environment Group), FEA (Federal Environment Agency),
Dubai Municipality and Al Fajr newspaper as well as Shell staff
from around the Middle East.
“The purpose of the meeting was to explain Shell Dubai’s
Sustainable Development campaign for the next 12 months to its stakeholders
and to get their feed back,” says Hussain Al-Mahmoudi, External
Affairs Manager for Shell Companies in Dubai and the Northern Emirates.
“Shell has three main programmes which it will be running
during the course of the next twelve months and they are all quite
different,” explains Hussain. “The first programme,
the Shell Better Environment Awards [BEA] scheme, has been running
for 8 years now and is a well-established environmental programme.
“It’s aim is to encourage children, from the ages of
8 to 18, to develop environmental projects by working in teams under
supervision, with the projects funded by Shell. Last year there
were 224 applications from schools all over the UAE of which 89
were successful. These successful applicants involved almost 1,000
children in the carrying out of their projects.
“The second programme Shell will be producing is the Emirates
Businesswomen Award, and this will be its second year after a successful
first run this year. The Emirates Businesswomen Award recognises
the achievements of women in business in the UAE and by so doing
we hope that other women will be more encouraged to join the business
world.
“Our third programme will be a conference and exhibition
on the subject of Sustainable Development which will be held in
Dubai in April 2004 entitled Eco-Arabia 2004. Sustainable Development
is a major issue for the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies and
it has become a major policy of the Group to focus on Sustainable
Development in all its business activities.
“The meeting was very well attended and very useful. We were
able to brainstorm ideas about how to improve our existing programmes
and look at new ideas for Shell to develop for the future,”
concludes Hussain.
“The Better Environment Awards programme has been very successful
for many years now. The BEA is organised by Shell with the support
of the FEA,” explains Dr Saad Al-Numairy, Environmental Advisor,
at the Federal Environment Agency. “In the 8 years which the
scheme has been running we have had involvement from nearly fifty
per cent of all schools in the UAE. This is indeed a mark of the
popularity of the programme.
“However, we must not rest on our laurels so effort is needed
to evaluate the scheme and see if there are any areas where improvements
can be made.”
Habiba Al-Marashi, Chairperson of the Emirates Environment Group
comments, “I see the main challenge to be finding a way to
maintain the sustainability of the projects which are submitted
for consideration to the BEA. When the projects have been judged
they just go back to the schools and there is no enduring record,
written or visual to keep track of the projects and their findings
and suggestions.”
Ibrahim Al-Zu’bi, Global Youth Advisor for West Asia to the
United Nations Environment Programme states that, “Children
need the freedom to think for themselves and to be able to make
their own choices. The structure of the BEA allows them to do this
and I think that this is a very good opportunity for them to explore
the many different environmental issues.”
Posted by Richard Price,
Editor Pipeline Magazine
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