Sustainability: A Priority for Qatar

Each month, a member of the sustainable living community will write a piece for SWALIF. Please check back here for updates! 

3-Oct-201

Sustainability: A Priority for Qatar

Even though Qatar is a small country, it aims high. The Qatar National Vision 2030 specifically addresses Qatar’s goal of advancing its society through sustainable development. One of the main components of this is management of the environment in order to maintain harmony between economic growth, social development and environmental protection. The key point here is that development and sustainability can very much go hand in hand.

Many local as well as international companies in Qatar aim to integrate and follow through on the plan of ensuring economic, social and environmental sustainability. Qatar District Cooling Company, for instance, utilizes technology that drastically reduces carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, at the same time, ensuring that safe, clean cooling air is supplied via air conditioners to people’s homes.

Similarly, RasGas, a Qatari energy company, became the first to issue and launch a sustainability report. On the 29th of September, the Acting Managing Director of RasGas, Hamad Mubarak al-Muhannadi, in an article published in the Gulf Times, said, that together with working towards achieving their economic goals, they are also trying to maintain their “responsibilities to society and the environment, in line with the Qatar National Vision 2030” (Gulf Times). It was reported that RasGas increased its recycling performance to 65% in 2009 and was also the lowest greenhouse gas emitter in the LNG industry. A representative from the company also mentioned, “sustainability is a primary driving force behind operational excellence.”

Qatar’s initiatives towards focusing on sustainable development are remarkable. This just goes on to show how vital this is for the country, its people and their future. Qatar Foundation is also laying great emphasis on sustainable aspects and the Sustainable Living and Learning Community, which was established this August is one example of this. Students are given an on-campus residential opportunity to involve themselves in and to make sustainable living a part of their daily lives. They get the chance to learn through several educational programming initiatives and this encourages them to further be able to explore ways in which they could implement this knowledge in their fields of study and in their futures. Either at an individual or a broad level, we could all contribute in some way, towards building a sustainable future.

-- Benazir Karim.