Dubai Chamber hosted a workshop at its headquarters to introduce businesses and organisations to Dubai Chamber’s CSR Label. This comes after launching the first round of the Label for 2020, with applications being accepted until end of May 2020.

The workshop, attended by 22 participants from 13 companies, provided comprehensive details about the Dubai Chamber CSR Label’s application procedures. Attendees were also introduced to the, application method, and CSR Label benefits.

The Dubai Chamber CSR Label serves as a diagnostic framework and management tool for participating companies to gauge their approach to CSR and sustainability best practices, and assess their organisations’ impact on the environment and local community.

The Dubai Chamber CSR Label can be used to do an internal assessment for CSR policies in companies, evaluate performance and develop them on different levels. 377 CSR labels have been given since the initiative launched in the year 2010.

Last year, Dubai Chamber launched four new categories of the CSR Label, covering Workplace, Marketplace, Environment, and Community. Companies can apply for more than one category of the label and benefit from evaluation, development and recommendations during the normal application routine.

Companies applying for the workplace category need to demonstrate their effectiveness in addressing issues such as diversity, fair recruitment and promotion practices, and employees’ welfare and happiness.

The ‘Workplace’ category is designed to help organisations build strong and responsible partnerships with suppliers and enhance their reputation with customers.

The ‘Marketplace’ category covers CSR issues related to managing relationships with suppliers and customers.

The ‘Environment’ category focuses on CSR actions that organisations can take to increase their positive impact and mitigate their negative impact on the environment. Such efforts could cover energy, water and material efficiency measures to reduce pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and improve their recycling performance.

The application and assessment process for the environment category helps organisations, which are applying, to mitigate their impact on the environment, thereby becoming more efficient and enhancing their reputation.

The fourth category, ‘Community’, recognizes initiatives implemented by organisations, which support, and address community needs through employee volunteering, donations, funding community projects and contribution in kind.

Applicants are guided on prioritizing community initiatives, determining the most effective way to support their communities, and improving their reputation among employees, customers and the broader community.

The main benefits of applying for the new label categories are detailed assessments of companies’ workplace social and environmental impacts, appraisal of CSR practices by industry experts, learning and developing tools for improving CSR programmers, and better recognition for CSR efforts.

The Dubai Chamber CSR Label is managed by The Centre for Responsible Business, which was launched by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 2004. The Center encourages Dubai Chamber members to implement responsible business practices that contribute to enhancing the performance of their organisations and their competitive capabilities.