One of only 2 UAE companies honoured for helping reduce carbon footprint

Liberty Investment Company (LIC), commonly known as the Liberty Group, has been acknowledged as a Verified Corporate Hero for 2014 under the Emirates Wildlife Society-World Wide Fund for Nature (EWS-WWF) ‘Heroes of the UAE Private Sector Program’ for its long-term carbon management strategy to help reduce carbon footprint and tackle climate change.

The Liberty Group’s achievement was recognized after it submitted a case study documenting its success in achieving 27.2 per cent savings in energy and 29.2 per cent savings in water consumption in a pilot project at its Liberty Automobiles Showroom in Sharjah, after retrofitting the showroom and office facilities.

Liberty Group was one of the only two private sector companies recognised for measurable success in reducing the carbon footprint.
Sheikh Khalid Abdul Aziz Al Qasimi, Chairman of Liberty Group, commented: “Liberty Group is honoured to be named a Verified Corporate Hero by EWS-WWF. We sincerely believe it is our duty to do all we can to support environmental sustainability by taking conscious measures to reduce the carbon footprint. We began in a small way at our Liberty Showroom in Sharjah and we propose to roll out similar initiatives across the Group. We thank EWS-WWF for recognizing our efforts.”
Liberty Group prepared the case study after a dedicated team developed a detailed sustainability strategy called ‘GO GREEN’ to catalyse the engagement of employees and the management.

The substantial savings in water and energy were achieved through technical retrofits to air conditioning (setting the thermostat between 23 and 24 degrees, installing AC times to shut down units after working hours); lighting (changing external lighting to LED and CFL); reducing light fittings and using natural light where possible; office equipment (selecting energy efficient products) and water usage (installing water saving devices on taps and flow timers on wall-mounted ablution taps and developing an integrated system to re-use AC drain water.
In addition, regular staff engagement and awareness programs, weekly newsletter on energy and water savings and GO GREEN activities were organized to drive home the conservation message among the employees.