In partnership with the Supreme Council for Environment (SCE), the NBB Group, comprising of the National Bank of Bahrain (NBB) and Bahrain Islamic Bank (BisB), launched an internal Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Academy for its employees. The ESG Academy aims to spread awareness about sustainability themes and practices amongst the Group’s internal stakeholders, in line with its ambitious sustainability roadmap.
The signing ceremony was held in the presence of H.E. Dr Mohamed bin Dainah, Minister of Oil and Environment, Special Envoy for Climate Affairs and Mr. Farouk Al Moayyed, Chairman of the National Bank of Bahrain and representatives from both entities.
On this occasion, H.E. Dr Mohamed bin Dainah, Minister of Oil and Environment, Special Envoy for Climate Affairs, expressed his appreciation to the NBB Group for signing this agreement, stressing the Council’s support towards the launch of the Academy, which aims to enhance the level of public awareness on the environmental affairs and objectives of the Kingdom of Bahrain. His Excellency also reiterated this is a vital step towards building basic knowledge and achieving collective cooperation between the Kingdom’s various sectors, in line with the strategy and goals set by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, at COP26, to enable the Kingdom to reach its net-zero goals.
His Excellency, the Minister of Oil and Environment, said that the academy will train NBB Group’s employees and members of NBB’s Sustainability Committee on various areas of ESG practices. He explained that this partnership with the Supreme Council for the Environment comes in line with the directives of His Highness Sheikh Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the personal representative of His Majesty the King and Chairman of the Supreme Council for the Environment, to build bridges of communication between the government, private sector and civil agencies to support all programmes and activities related to the new generation of technology that benefits the Kingdom’s environment. His Excellency further noted that the NBB Group is partnering with several entities such as the Bahrain Institute for Banking and Finance (BIBF), the Sustainability Knowledge Group, and Bahrain Bourse to develop a set of programmes focused on ESG for its employees.
On her end, Dana Buheji, Group Chief Human Resources & Sustainability Officer at NBB, expressed her contentment with the partnership between the NBB Group and the Supreme Council for the Environment to launch the ESG Academy.
Dana Buheji also explained that since the inception of the Bank’s 3-year sustainability roadmap, NBB has been on a steadfast journey towards implementing ESG practices across multiple business and operational verticals. She also expressed that the collaboration with the Supreme Council for Environment is a vital step in elevating the ESG knowledge of the bank’s most valuable asset, its employees, who ultimately are the main drivers of the sustainability journey and will help the bank meet its ESG mandates.
The NBB Group has taken several steps to shed light on ESG, while ensuring that the Group has a solid foundation to support these efforts and endeavours, most notably the launch of the ESG Academy.
Through its partnership with the SCE, the NBB Group will leverage the Supreme Council’s knowledge and expertise in the ESG field through a series of awareness and knowledge-building seminars. A range of topics will be covered related to the Kingdom of Bahrain’s sustainability development goals, the national sustainability projects, and the Group’s necessary alignment and contribution to help achieve the vision and strategic goals of the Kingdom of Bahrain, and its candidacy represented in the ESG field globally. The SCE-led programmes will also touch on Adaptation Action in Bahrain, Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss, Bahrain’s Road to Net-Zero by 2060 and the Paris Agreement and Kyoto Protocol.