Omni Unit Special Edition Newsletter

Since August of this year, several of our colleagues at ADG have had the opportunity to participate in specially created Sustainability training sessions, crafted by our Director of Sustainability, Shahad Nejaim. The aim of the of the sessions has been to create a unified, understanding of the definition of sustainability and how it can be used as a value-creation lever; to define what it means in a practical sense for how our departments operate in their day to day tasks sustainably; and the larger picture of how ADG is aligning with international sustainability standards. By creating a unified approach across ADG to sustainability, we set ourselves up for smoother implementation of sustainable mandates when it comes to cross-departmental planning of projects.

So, to bridge the gap four essential modules of the training sessions were put together, as below:

Sustainability 101: gives background of the evolution of sustainability, highlights the differences between CSR, ESG and business sustainability and provides links to business sustainability and how it contributes to value creation and a look at the wider sustainability landscape and how it relates back to ADG

Sustainable Departments: looks at traditional functions of departments as well as the potential sustainability contributions from each department. It also dives in to the collaboration that is required between departments and the role of the Board of Directors in being a driving force for sustainable practices.

Sustainability at ADG: outlines the sustainability governance system at ADG and how it relates to the MSCI provisional ESG rating process as well as highlighting the ESG issues that are faced across the group

Sustainable Business Strategy: this session looks at the McKinsey Strategy Model for sustainability and how ADG is integrating it into fundamental business strategy frameworks. It also looks at how  sustainability knowledge gained can be applied to the strategy creation process.

So far, two cohorts of colleagues have participated in the in-person workshops, and will slowly be cascaded across our group companies in time. Feedback from colleagues who attended the sessions was overwhelmingly positive, with comments such as “I liked how it linked the different department’s responsibilities together” and “the sessions clarified misconceptions on a topic that many are unfamiliar with” while another participant commented “I liked how it explained why and how to link the global sustainability initiatives with ADG”. These comments, amongst others, highlighted why it is important to simplify sustainability concepts and ingrain them into colleagues’ understandings via an active and engaging session. Aside from all the information and educational value of these sessions, there was some room for fun with quizzes that tested the knowledge gained from the training. The two winners of those were Jameel Soroji and Ahmad Attas – both from our very own IT department!

With the final cohort of the training set for September 30th, this is certainly a strong foundation from which to roll out the training sessions to our colleagues across the group!