Décrivez les principales caractéristiques de la mesure/initiative:
Sustainability issues are taken very seriously by the Emirates Literature Foundation (ELF). ELF operates a green procurement strategy and it is important to ELF to always have thought-provoking talks on sustainability issues as part of their Festival program. Authors such as celebrated ethologist Dr Jane Goodall, sustainability advisor Tony Juniper, and green champion Stephen Ritz, have all appeared at the Festival to talk about their areas of expertise. The Emirates Literature Foundation organizes the Voices of Future Generations competition for children, which promotes learning about sustainability issues.
Quels sont les résultats atteints jusqu’à présent grâce à la mise en œuvre de la mesure/initiative ?:
Sustainability Report
In 2020, the Foundation worked with Dubai Carbon to produce its first Sustainability report. All emissions resulting from the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature have been accounted for in the carbon footprint and voluntarily offset through the UNFCCC Clean Development Mechanism, deeming the event as carbon neutral in 2019 and 2020.
Influence through programming
In 2020 ELF welcomed 12 sustainability sessions for children and adults, in English and Arabic; 40% more than in 2019. These sessions, which included Jane Goodall, The Green Sheikh and Tony Juniper, were sold out or close to full capacity – testament to the Foundation’s ongoing audience development and marketing of sustainability.
Educating the next generation
Voices of Future Generations is a global writing competition that empowers children to learn about sustainability and children’s rights through creative writing. The programme in the Gulf Region is supported by HH Sheikha Hissa Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum who is the Goodwill Ambassador for the Gulf Region. The Foundation is delivering the initiative, which highlights Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and contributes to the 2030 global targets. In its first year it has attracted more than 1,700 registrations from 98 schools across the seven Emirates.
Influencing stakeholders, 360
Our Green Procurement Strategy gives preference to environmentally preferable products, to actively stimulate market demand for eco-friendly products and services. In 2019/2020, we reduced the number of printed programs by 55% and used wood-free recyclable paper. We share our journey and supplier details with all our stakeholders to influence them to join us in our efforts.
Making the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature a single-use plastic-free event
We highlighted single-use plastic to challenge people and make them think about their impact and change behaviours. Asking people to bring refillable bottles while banning the sale of single-use plastic bottles on-site lead to a tangible positive result, saving 16,830 bottles of water at the 2020 Festival.
The efforts of the Emirates Literature Foundation are being recognised. It has been shortlisted as a finalist at the Gulf Sustainability and CSR Awards 2020 in two categories; Best Community Development, and Best Sustainability Education or Awareness Program.