AIWF Institutional Partner The Pearl Initiative, the leading Gulf business-led non-profit organisation working on corporate governance, conferred The Pearl Initiative Champion of Sustainability Award to His Royal Highness Prince Charles in November 2016, in honour of His Royal Highness’ tremendous contribution towards enhancing global understanding of the importance of sustainable business practices. The award was presented during the GCC Regional Finance Leaders Circle of Practice Meeting organised by the Prince of Wales’ Accounting for Sustainability (A4S) Project in Abu Dhabi.
Badr Jafar, Founder of the Pearl Initiative, said: “As a staunch advocate of numerous initiatives that contribute to making sustainability a mainstay for businesses and communities worldwide, HRH Prince Charles has had a formidable impact on the world at large. His vision to develop measurable interventions to protect future generations has guided several individual and organisational sustainability mandates. I am proud to count myself among those that he has influenced with his life lessons on sustainability. The Pearl Initiative is greatly honored to recognise HRH The Prince of Wales as a ‘Champion of Sustainability’ and we congratulate the Accounting for Sustainability Initiative for its success in working with businesses in the Gulf towards sustainable best practices.”
The Pearl Initiative has been working with the Prince of Wales’ Accounting for Sustainability Project for four years to spread awareness across the Gulf Region around the business case behind integrated reporting. The organisations signed a further cooperation agreement in April 2015 to create the Gulf Region Finance Leaders Circle of Practice – a vehicle to help share ideas, experiences and good practices amongst a group of experts in the regional finance community, to drive sustainability and set the pathway towards integrated thinking. The platform looks to create a space for collaborative innovation and to encourage companies to adopt an integrated approach by providing networking, mentoring and knowledge sharing opportunities.
In 2014, AIWF signed a MoU with the Pearl Initiative, which since 2010 has driven extensive programmes that positively influence business thinking in all countries of the GCC, producing regionally focused research-based insight reports and corporate good practice case studies. AIWF is very proud of its Institutional Partnership with the Pearl Initiative, and looks forward to even closer collaboration with the organisation in the year ahead.
