Building on the airline’s existing CSR strategy, the plan reinforces the airline’s commitment to operate as a responsible global citizen by focusing on driving sustainability in three key areas – climate change and clean air, waste management, and community service through a program of research and development and education and outreach, developed in cooperation with external partners.
The airline, which has had a CSR strategy in place since 2008, supports and manages many local and regional charity initiatives and several other environment-friendly CSR projects including carbon emission reduction across its global network.
As part of its 2011 initiatives, the airline today announced new strategic partnerships with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Bahrain’s Ministry of Education (MoE).
Gulf Air’s Chief Executive Officer Samer Majali announced the new initiatives for 2011 at a press conference held at the company’s headquarters and elaborated on the airline’s significant achievements in 2010 as part of the company’s wider Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy.
“As a responsible corporate entity Gulf Air understands the importance of CSR and its role in protecting and improving the environment in which it operates, at home or abroad,” said Majali.
“While we have made some significant achievements since the launch of our CSR policy in 2008, our collaboration with UNEP and MoE this year is a further boost to our campaign towards promoting environmental awareness,” he added.
“Carbon emission is one of the major environmental concerns globally and Gulf Air has proactively implemented several fuel-saving initiatives in 2010 resulting in an emissions reduction 20,000 tons of CO2 last year,” he said.
Gulf Air had taken all these measures while maintaining the highest levels of flight safety, schedule reliability and passenger travel convenience.
“As a long-standing member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), we are in tune with the world body’s commitment to achieve carbon-neutral growth from 2020.”
“In addition to aggressively reducing our fuel emissions we remain committed to supporting a number of local and regional charity initiatives across our network including the local mother and welfare society in Bahrain, UCO Parents Home, supporting special sports activities for people with special needs such as the Amwaj Traithon, and several refuge initiatives in the Philippines, Pakistan, and Palestine’s Gaza”.
“Finally, we strongly believe that Gulf Air can play a positive role in protecting the environment and help build a better future for our children, the local community and the world,” Majali said.
“This alliance between UNEP and Gulf Air is an example of how the corporate sector can embrace environmental responsibility and contribute to tackling the environmental challenges. It underlines the three bottom lines of sustainable development – prosperity, environmental quality and social equity -which are integral to the business sector,” Marie Daher the Information and Outreach Officer for the UNEP Regional Office of West Asia in Bahrain, added.