Sustainability

This year is very special for GPIC as we celebrate 40 years of sustainable success and it marks the eighth anniversary of our commitment to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC). Whilst much has changed in the world and in our Company over the past years, our commitment to Sustainability and Sustainable Development remains firm.

These years have been challenging for sustainability in many respects, but there have also been exciting developments in the sustainability landscape. We look back at GPIC’s efforts in scaling up sustainability efforts and mainstreaming the UN’s 17 SDGs in the Company’s Business Functions.

In September 2015, the UN General Assembly agreed to 17 Global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to reach by 2030. The goals and specific targets under the goals seek to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all.

GPIC’s triple bottom line business approach aligns strongly to the UN SDGs. We have moved from the traditional three P’s (People, Planet and Profit) to the five P’s (People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace and Partnerships) model of Sustainable Development. GPIC a proud supporter of the global goals, has contributed in all the phases, right from the participatory process of ‘My World’ to setting up meaningful indicators, sharing best practices on SDG aligned projects, and programmes through the UN Global Compact and KPMG’s Industry Matrix. Aligning corporate goals both short term and long term with the relevant SDGs. Mainstreaming SDGs in business functions. Sharing our sustainability performance publicly through GRI sustainability reports and encouraging others to do the

same. Our most recent initiative is linking our Capex Projects and modifications to the relevant SDGs and all this is done through an automated MOC process.

GPIC is not only a market leader in business but also a well-known champion in sustainability. Through the years, we have scaled up the sustainability practices and initiatives and currently lead in a number of ways. The current focus of our sustainability initiatives is leadership, collaboration, innovation, accelerating youth empowerment for sustainable development.

Utilising the globally established GRI framework we have conducted the third most extensive stakeholder engagement to ascertain the materiality of the sustainability issues we advocate. All the members of our Sustainability Reporting Committee are trained on GRI standards enabling them to effectively prepare and publish the GRI Sustainability reports and GPIC’s Fifth GRI Sustainability Report is due in Q1 2020.

As a committed member of the UN Global Compact, we have issued our Communication on Progress (COP) report in March 2019 qualifying the advanced level criteria. This Report also serves UN’s signature issue platforms, such as; the Women’s Empowerment Principles and the Food and Agriculture Business Principles.

As an outcome of our deep commitment to Climate Change action in relation to COP21; GPIC’s Climate Change Committee, whose members are certified trained on IPCC GHG inventory software have issued the Company’s 2018 GHG Inventory Report and the next 2019 report was issued in February 2020.

GPIC’s leadership commitment and support for sustainable agriculture, food security and poverty eradication and its engagement with international organsations such as; UNGC, UN Environment, and FAO continued to be significant. We continue to benchmark ourselves with the best in class and were awarded the Arabia CSR Award 2019 in the Large Organisations Category and the Partnerships and collaboration category for our outstanding achievements in Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability in the MENA region. Winning the Arabia CSR Award for the fifth consecutive year is a testimony to GPIC’s successful strategy of building a culture that has extended far beyond the traditional understanding of corporate philanthropy. It has taken on the form of proactive, hands-on engagement, to assist in meeting the myriad of social sector needs, in education, health, skills development, poverty alleviation, women empowerment and infrastructure improvement.

We ultimately know and believe that, through CSR leadership, innovation, partnerships and accelerating youth empowerment we can guarantee a more prosperous and sustainable future for societies and our planet.