Carbon footprint reduction programme equivalent to taking 286 cars off the road each year, company says

Transguard Group, an Emirates Group company, has announced that it is reviewing its commitment to safeguarding the planet’s future following, encouraged by what it claims to be a successful first year of employee education and the rollout of a series of environmental initiatives across all areas of its business operation.

According to Transguard, at the start of 2011, a Sustainability Strategy Committee was tasked with building control systems, measuring performance and developing reward systems with 15% of the resulting cost savings being ploughed back into self-funding future initiatives. Explaining the process, Transguard revealed that the committee set for itself four clear objectives, which comprised educating management about sustainability, providing staff incentives to help change behaviour towards energy consumption, and an ongoing employee awareness drive, focusing on sustainability in the workplace, the wider market, and the community.

Other initiatives reportedly include the sourcing of sustainable alternative consumables, company-wide use of energy-saving light fittings and air conditioning units, a switchover to Forest Stewardship Council paper products and eco-friendly cleaning equipment. In addition, more than 3,750 water-saving devices are said to have been installed across all Transguard offices and staff accommodation facilities, positively impacting 12,000 peoples’ water usage and consumption, the announcement stated.

Grainne O’Neill

Stating the company’s sustainability mission, Grainne O’Neill, Head of Procurement and TG Green, said: “Transguard considers sustainability to be an integral component of its corporate strategy. It puts key performance indicators in place to develop and implement the strategy. Our fourth, and most ambitious objective is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions associated with energy and water consumption by 10% every 12 months, year on year. We saw results after just eight months.”

From simple steps, such as reducing the amount of colour printing and recycling used by electronic goods to collecting used oil, Transguard claimed that it has identified potential total annual savings in excess of Dh1.3 million across all its initiatives.

“To put this into perspective, the amount of water the company now saves every week is nearly the equivalent of an Olympic-sized swimming pool, and our carbon footprint reduction efforts are comparable to taking 286 cars off the road every year,” said O’Neill.

Transguard claims that it is also a keen supporter of local community initiatives and an active signatory of the ‘Heroes of the UAE’ campaign, set up jointly by The Emirates Wildlife Society in association with the Worldwide Fund for Nature and the Abu Dhabi Environment Agency. The programme helps educate the local population – and corporations – on how to reduce, recycle and re-use scarce resources.