OREANDA-NEWS. March 13, 2013. His Excellency Dr. Mohammed bin Saleh Al-Sada, Minister of Energy and Industry and Chairman & Managing Director of Qatar Petroleum (QP), awarded seven companies for excellence in sustainability reporting and also presented Certificates of Appreciation to a total of 33 companies for their participation in the energy and industry sector’s Sustainable Development Industry Reporting (SDIR) programme.

Implemented for the past two years thus far, the SDIR Programme has become a key mechanism for supporting the sector’s implementation of sustainability and for showcasing its commitment to the State of Qatar towards achieving the Qatar National Vision 2030 (QNV 2030) and the National Development Strategy (NDS) 2011-2016.

The awards ceremony, which was held at the Four Seasons Hotel Doha, was under the patronage of H.E. Dr. Al-Sada and was attended by QP directors and corporate managers, the CEOs and other top officials of participating companies, as well as by senior delegates from ministries and different government agencies.

H.E Dr. Al-Sada, who envisioned and guided the development of the SDIR scheme, personally congratulated the company representatives as he presented trophies to the seven winners of the Award for Excellence in Sustainability Reporting and Certificates of Appreciation to the 33 participating companies.

In his keynote address, H.E. Dr. Al-Sada remarked that the awards ceremony is a source of pride for Qatar’s energy and industry sector as the event highlights its commitment towards sustainable development and QNV 2030 besides acknowledging the positive contribution of the sector to Qatar’s continued development.

“Since it began in the year 2010, the SDIR programme has improved and the level of participation from the industry has increased substantially. To acknowledge and encourage the level of engagement, the Sustainable Development Awards scheme for Excellence in Sustainability Reporting has been launched. These awards are given for the exemplary achievements by individual organizations in promoting and executing sustainable development programs while encouraging the most transparent and high quality reports submitted by companies that demonstrate a commitment to sustainability, performance and innovation.” he said.

Over the past year, QP’s HSE Regulations and Enforcement Directorate developed the assessment criteria and the SDIR award scheme. All the 33 companies that submitted their sustainability reports automatically qualified for the SDIR award scheme. The directorate carefully reviewed the companies’ reports and assessed the reported accomplishments, commitments and action plans.

It also analyzed their implementation of various sustainable development activities and programmes, leading to the selection of winners for the three categories of the award scheme.

There were seven winners of the Award for Excellence in Sustainability Reporting. RasGas Company Limited was the winner under the “Large-Scale Organizations (>500 employees on roll) Category” and the two joint runner-ups were Dolphin Energy Limited and Qatar Steel.

In the “Medium-Scale Organizations (<500 employees on roll) Category,” the winner was Mesaieed Power Company Limited (MPower) and the two joint runner-ups were Qatar Fuel Additives Company (QAFAC) and Qatar Vinyl Company (QVC).

Qatar Petroleum received a special recognition award for its outstanding leadership and commitment to sustainable development and corporate social responsibility.

Commenting on the future of the SDIR programme, Mr. Saif Al-Naimi, Director of QP’s HSE Regulations and Enforcement Directorate, said: “The SDIR programme strives to deliver continuous improvement in reporting by all companies involved. All companies continue to advance from the previous years as evidenced by the value of their company reports and the sector-wide sustainability report.”

“Qatar’s energy and industry sector has experienced many benefits for implementing the SDIR programme. These include ensuring industry commitment and alignment with the Qatar National Vision 2030 and National Development Strategy 2011-2016, having an effective mechanism for identifying and addressing industry sustainability challenges leading to achieving performance gains and CSR actions, and showcasing the industry’s positive contribution towards sustainable development,” he explained.