Emirates District Cooling (Emicool), a leading district cooling service provider in the region and a wholly owned subsidiary of Dubai Investments, has been conferred with the ISO certification 26000:2010.
The certification marks the company’s fourth ISO mark in addition to OSHAS and the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region's first Global Conformity (GC)-mark certification.
With this, Emicool has become the first district cooling company across GCC with the ISO 26000:2010 for setting a high standard of corporate social responsibility (CSR) governance, protecting worker and labour human rights, contributing towards saving and improving climate change as well as implementing code of ethics and advanced transparency systems.
On the certification, CEO Dr Adib Moubadder said: "The ISO 26000:2010 acts as an important guide for the integration of our corporate social responsibility in the strategy, systems, practices, and processes of our organization."
"To achieve the goals, we worked with a certified body to ensure that we are implementing the certification with transparency. We aim to continue contributing to global sustainable development by encouraging the initiation of socially responsible initiatives towards improving impacts on workers, natural environments, and communities alike" he stated.
As part of the initiatives undertaken for the certification, Emicool converted its entire fleet of passenger cars to an all-electric fleet comprising the Renault Zoe, said the top official.
The move to replace the entire fleet with electric models was aimed at reducing COâ‚‚ emissions by approximately 400 tonnes per year. The addition of Electric Vehicle (EV) charging spots also helped optimize the usage of the electric fleet, he added.
Coupled with the sustainability initiative, Emicool’s support towards education, focusing on the science behind viable energy solutions, formed part of the certification assessment criteria.
The Emirati firm along with University of Balamand (UOBD) facilitates collaboration and engagement in mutually beneficial opportunities for students by providing educational scholarships.
Marking another first, Emicool was also conferred with the GC-Mark as a certified green company and the first district cooling company across the Mena region.
Emicool is also OSHAS-certified with the 18001:2007 for its occupational health and safety management system, it added.