A leadership record in shifting markets towards sustainability
Sustainability Excellence has been a significant contributor to the uptake of sustainability in the region.
Sustainability Excellence has been a significant contributor to the uptake of sustainability in the region. We focus on three key ways of influencing markets:
Always driving innovation, working with the most ambitious organisations to help them lead the market
We have supported our most ambitious clients to achieve many of the region’s first breakthrough actions on sustainability. These include, but are not limited to:
- Supported the development of the region’s first GRI-based and third-party assured sustainability report
- Supported the issuance of the first green sukuk by a Saudi company
- Worked with the first major Saudi company to achieve an approved Science Based Target
- Facilitated the development of the first sector-wide sustainability reporting in the region, by the Qatar energy and industry sector, including sector-level target setting
- Supported the development of the region’s first green bond report
- Worked extensively with FIFA and the Qatar Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy in the development and implementation of the sustainability strategy of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, including becoming the first World Cup to achieve ISO 20121 for event sustainability management systems
- Achieved many other reporting firsts, including working with the first company in more than five regional countries to adopt sustainability reporting, supporting the first Integrated Report following IRRC standards, and the first total impact report
- Created the first online platform of all publicly available corporate sustainability data in the region. Hosted the sustainability platform of the first regional stock exchange to develop an online ESG platform
- Established the first and still most comprehensive ESG assessment ratings for the Arab region
A catalyst of market-wide initiatives
Catalyzing and supporting market-wide, multi-stakeholder initiatives that shift the market towards sustainability
Organized and collective action provides confidence to market participants of the market’s direction. We continuously seek to create, and participate in, initiatives that are designed to familiarize the market with the business case for sustainability, and set expectations aligned with national and regional competitive interests. Examples of these efforts include:
- Led or supported the development of voluntary Sustainability / ESG reporting guidelines for six major stock exchanges in the region
- Supported the establishment of the Arab Sustainability Leadership Group in 2008, comprised of the first organisations adopting sustainability reporting in the region, to introduce the region to sustainability management and reporting
- Directly supported 14 of the first 15 companies, organisations and government entities to adopt sustainability management and reporting in Abu Dhabi, and supported the establishment of the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Group to accelerate take-up in the Emirate
- Facilitated the Qatar Energy and Industry Sector Sustainability Initiative, supporting the sector in its preparation for Qatar’s hosting of CoP18, shifting the sector from no companies disclosing on sustainability, to more than 30 contributing to the world’s most comprehensive sector report at the time
- Worked with the General Secretariat of the Executive Council of Abu Dhabi to develop a sustainability dashboard, and review the extent of sustainability integration in the strategies of more than 34 government entities and identify top opportunities for the Emirate
- Led the first Arab delegation to the GRI (previously Global Reporting Initiative), officially launched two versions of the GRI in the region, and undertook its first translation to Arabic.
- Developed and/or contributed to the sustainability strategies of major regional sovereign wealth funds, and worked with dozens of their major portfolio companies to enhance competitiveness and affect market-wide change
- Produce ESG assessments of more than 800 regional companies each year, the most comprehensive coverage of any ESG ratings entity in the world, and providing the best national and regional market views, through our independent subsidiary ESG Invest.
Easy to adopt services for widespread sustainability take-up by the broad market
Providing affordable, easy to adopt services that encourage the widespread adoption of sustainability across markets
For a market to fundamentally shift, there must be widespread adoption. In addition to our customized services for the region’s leading companies, we work with all sizes of companies and sectors to ensure the broad take-up of sustainability, at a level of adoption that is suitable to each company’s context and ambitions.
We focus on results: helping clients secure business benefits and competitive advantages. We avoid complexity whenever it is not required. This allows us to deliver more, for less. We are renowned for offering outstanding value for money. We are also well-known for our understanding of the region, offering recommendations highly suited to the national and regional context.
To provide an idea of our overall impact in the region, and the confidence entrusted to us by the market, we:
- Have worked with nearly half of all companies that are adopting sustainability management as captured by public sustainability reports
- Have worked with nearly two thirds of all publicly listed companies that are issuing sustainability reports in Saudi Arabia, the region’s largest market
Get in touch
We’d love to hear from you! Whether you have questions, need assistance, or want to collaborate, feel free to reach out.
