Tribune News Network
Doha
United Development Company (UDC) a leading Qatari public shareholding company and the master developer of The Pearl and Gewan Islands, celebrated ‘Qatar Sustainability Week’ with a series of community events geared towards creating environmental awareness at The Pearl Island.
Qatar Sustainability Week 2022 in its 7th edition, is organised by Earthna Center, as a nation-wide campaign which aims to encourage people to lead more sustainable lives and create a movement of change by raising awareness of the impact of climate change, as well as emphasizing that sustainability in Qatar is a responsibility.
The Pearl Island’s weekend-long activities included the inauguration of the Island’s first community garden in collaboration with Hadiqaa Middle East, which aims to educate community members about the importance of biodiversity and sustainability, create more green space in Qatar, and provide a sustainable lifestyle for the Island’s residents. The event further engaged residents and their families in several environmental and educational activities.
In this context, UDC had announced an initiative, the first of its kind in Qatar and the Middle East, to plant a tree for each new UDC employee in an effort to sequestrate employees’ carbon dioxide emission and lower the environmental footprint of UDC’s operations. This is in addition to 160 trees which were planted within the scope of the existing cooperation between UDC and the Green Organization, in addition to 7,700 trees currently existing around The Pearl Island, which compensate for almost 197 tons of carbon dioxide.
In the belief that healthier lifestyles prompt healthier practices and choices which eventually contributes to a healthier environment, The Pearl Island’s residents were further treated to a fitness workout on Viva Bahriya’s beach in collaboration with local fitness providers, and invited to partake in a blood donation campaign in partnership with Hamad Medical Corporation, to help treat and save the lives of community members locally, which in turn helps create happy, healthy, and sustainablecommunities.
To conclude the week’s activities, UDC hosted a ‘Stadium Building Competition’ at The Pearl Island’s Amphitheater involving teams of professional and student architects and engineers which competed to construct sustainable stadiums using single-use plastic and recyclable materials.
In this same context, UDC’s Environmental and Sustainability Strategy 2022-2026 recognizes the implications of plastic on climate change and hence seeks to offset all greenhouse gas emissions, by advancing low-carbon solutions and encouraging reduction of plastic use as well as setting up recycling mechanisms throughout UDC’s offices, worksites, and The Pearl Island.
Consequently, UDC had launched a three-month recycling initiative earlier in 2022, which has yielded 2.3 tons of plastic waste supplied by residents, which were successfully recycled into useful goods for the community.
This year, UDC had also issued its Environmental, Social, and Governance Report (ESG) to Qatar Stock Exchange, making it the first listed real estate company in Qatar to officially disclose its sustainability and environmental strategies and achievements.
As an organisation established to play a key role in the development of Qatar, UDC’s business practices are closely aligned with the wider goals of sustainable economic and social development that the State of Qatar has set forth in its vision for 2030, as evidenced by the attention given to incorporate sustainable development programmes into the company’s business decisions and practices.
