The National Bank of Bahrain (NBB) has announced the establishment of its new six-member sustainability committee under the chairmanship of Dana Buheji, Group Chief Human Resources & Sustainability Officer. It will monitor, manage and address issues linked to sustainability and responsible banking.

 

The formation of the committee is a natural next step for NBB, following its adoption of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) considerations on a board level.

 

NBB's nomination, remuneration, governance and sustainability (NRGS) committee will be responsible for overseeing sustainability integration within NBB’s business and operations. 

 

The recent changes within the bank work to align NBB’s sustainability strategy and roadmap with its goal of becoming an influential market leader and pioneer within the sustainability field in the financial industry. 

 

In keeping with NBB’s commitment towards diversity, the committee is composed equally of both genders, with a 50% male and 50% female ratio, while also being split equally in terms of member representations from both business and support internal backgrounds. 

 

The panel members are: Abdulrahim A. Hameed - Senior Associate Debt Capital Markets & Syndications, Corporate & Institutional Investment Banking; Ali Faqihi - Assistant Relationship Manager, Corporate & Institutional Investment Banking; Deena Kowhari - Team Leader, Business Credit Review, Commercial & SMEs; Nada Ishaq - Retail Marketing Manager, Retail Banking Division; Reem Aldoseri - Group Head of Property, Property, Procurement & Administration and Salman Radhi - Information Security Risk Analyst, Risk Management.

 

All have 13 years of average working experience, and will enable the committee to diversify the bank’s activities.

 

On the new committee, Buheji said: "Our ongoing commitment to develop and successfully implement sustainability across our operations, keeps us on track towards becoming a leader in the field of sustainability in Bahrain."

 

"This comes in continuation of our ongoing efforts to eventually become the Kingdom’s Employer of Choice as well as the investors’ choice, further cementing NBB’s position as one of the leading organisations for Bahranisation within the Kingdom," she stated. 

 

"We are also one of the first organisations to speak openly about integrating sustainability into its operational framework," she added.

 

After producing the Bank’s and Bahrain’s first Annual Financial and Sustainability report for the year 2020, NBB successfully completed various internal and external activities covering a number of areas as part of adopting the pillars within the ongoing ESG strategy. 

 

As part of its pillar to nurture the workforce, several training sessions were conducted and extended to all employees and board members, successfully managing to provide training for 95% of employees, a couple was a about the importance of ESG in Banking, Diversity & Inclusion and Corporate Governance related webinars, said the statement from NBB. 

 

The bank successfully left a direct environmental footprint with a year-on-year water and energy consumption reduction, along with other environmental initiatives that touched upon NBB’s sustainability framework, it added.

 

Buheji said: "At NBB, we are taking great strides to create a sustainable future for the kingdom and for its people. And as such, we’ve carefully selected the most suitable candidates from diverse backgrounds to create and spearhead the Sustainability Committee, ensuring that activities across different areas of the Bank are being carried forward as per our sustainability objective of stakeholder inclusivity."

 

"Our progress remains powered by our stakeholders and fueled by our shared passion for business and social success," she noted.

 

NBB remains committed to investing in the professional development of its employees, in line with its ESG key pillars, one of which is nurturing its workforce, she added.-TradeArabia News Service