Bahrain's national carrier Gulf Air announced new strategic partnerships with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Bahrain’s Ministry of Education (MoE) as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy for 2011.

Outlining its CSR plan and initiatives for the year, Gulf Air said the plan reinforces its commitment to operate as a responsible global citizen by focusing on driving sustainability in three key areas – climate change and clean air, waste management

Besides it will also focus on community service through a program of research and development and education and outreach, developed in cooperation with external partners.
 
The airline, which has had a CSR strategy in place since 2008, supports and manages many local and regional charity initiatives and several other environment-friendly CSR projects including carbon emission reduction across its global network.

Announcing the new CSR initiatives, Gulf Air chief executive officer Samer Majali said, "As a responsible corporate entity Gulf Air understands the importance of CSR and its role in protecting and improving the environment in which it operates, at home or abroad."

He elaborated on the airline’s significant achievements in 2010 as part of the company’s wider corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy.

"While we have made some significant achievements since the launch of our CSR policy in 2008, our collaboration with UNEP and MoE this year is a further boost to our campaign towards promoting environmental awareness," he added.
 
As a first step, Gulf Air will be launching a series of local activities that include an environmentally themed drawing competition involving students from local government schools.

"The winners of the three best drawings will fly to Kochi, India where they will spend a week nature camping, nature trail-walking, learning eco-conservation etc., in an eco-touristic resort to understand and appreciate the planet we live in and promote the message back home," said Majali. 

"We will also be screening on board our flights a series of short documentary films on the Environment produced by UNEP (in English with Arabic subtitles) demonstrating our support and involvement with the International organization in its mission to save the earth.

This video will run from June to December and is expected to be seen by nearly 3 million passengers.

On June 5, Gulf Air will be celebrating World Environment day with a ‘Green Corners’ event. "We will donate hundreds of tree saplings to various schools for students to plant them in an allocated ‘green corner’ on the grounds."

"Volunteers will be educating the kids on how to tend to the plants and how they can be part of the worldwide movement in protecting the environment," said the airline chief.

Gulf Air staff members will also be planting tree saplings in allocated ‘green corners’ on GF premises on that day.
An internal communications campaign will also be launched for employees to reduce waste and adapt environment-friendly practices in their day-to-day work.

On the technical front, Gulf Air will soon be signing up with IATA to introduce a voluntary carbon offset programme for its customers, said Majali. "We are also preparing to join the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS)," he added.

Elaborating on the 2010 achievements,  Majali said, “Carbon emission is one of the major environmental concerns globally and Gulf Air has proactively implemented several fuel-saving initiatives in 2010 resulting in an emissions reduction 20,000 tons of CO2 last year.”

“We strongly believe that Gulf Air can play a positive role in protecting the environment and help build a better future for our children, the local community and the world,” he added.

Marie Daher the Information and Outreach Officer for the UNEP Regional Office of West Asia in Bahrain, said the alliance between UNEP and Gulf Air was a perfect example of how the corporate sector can embrace environmental responsibility and contribute to tackling the environmental challenges.

"It underlines the three bottom lines of sustainable development – prosperity, environmental quality and social equity -which are integral to the business sector," she added.-TradeArabia News Service