Doha Bank won the prestigious Golden Peacock Global Award for Sustainability 2013. Dr. R. Seetharaman, Group CEO, Doha Bank, received the award from the Rt. Hon. Baroness Verma, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Energy & Climate Change, UK at the 13th International Conference on Corporate Governance & Sustainability. The event was hosted by the Institute of Directors, India as part of London Global Convention 2013.

On receiving the award, Dr. R. Seetharaman said, “This is a milestone achievement in our efforts towards sustainability. It gives us a boost to strengthen our efforts towards sustainable development. Doha Bank will continue to work on sustainable development of its stakeholders.”

Dr. R. Seetharaman also participated in the panel discussion “Rejuvenating economy through Sustainability”. Speaking at the Panel discussion. Dr. R. Seetharaman gave insights to scale up green growth solutions. He said, “Green Banking and Climate Change Financing are the key initiatives to promote green economies. Doha Bank advocates and practices Green Banking, which is one of the core business philosophies that will support sustainability into the future. Banks should align lending activities with environmental cause. They should develop environmental and Social Risk Management and expand the scope of risk management to include Social and environment risk also. Public Private Partnership (PPP) models can potentially address the challenges posed by climate change and there should be policies to attract private sector investment.

“Doha Bank maintains a well-defined Environmental Policy with the principles of ‘Reduce, Reuse & Re-cycle’. Initiatives to Support the State of Qatar’s ‘Go Green Qatar’, Seminars on Global warming conducted in Qatar, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Oman, Kuwait, Turkey, Tokyo, Nagoya, Singapore, Chennai & Mumbai, Dedicated Green Bank Website, Environment Friendly & Bio Degradable Credit Cards, Paperless Banking, Green Bank Task Force Committee, Annual Marathon – Al Dana Green Fun Run & Public Awareness Campaigns through ATMs, all underlines the Environmental Sustainability of DOHA Bank. Doha Bank has reached out to the larger community through its long standing Corporate Social Responsibility activities where it is committed to raise awareness on environmental issues and focus on the economic challenges facing the world and the region.

“At the Rio+20 summit held in June 2012 the global leaders have agreed for sustainable development at all levels, integrating economic, social and environmental aspects. They will also make efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Climate change has become a threat for global food supply and we cannot look at food security, poverty and climate change separately. The 18th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 18) to the UNFCCC was held in Doha, Qatar. The conference had come out with the “Doha Climate Gateway” which pushed forward the solutions to climate change.

“Social sustainability actively supports the capacity of current and future generations to create healthy and livable communities. Corporate social responsibility is about creating long term shareholder value by embracing opportunities and managing risks derived from environment, social, governance issues and economic factors. Corporate social responsibility should promote Green economies and result in social sustainability. The impact of Global warming is getting worse with each passing day. Hence it is necessary that we contribute to the development of Green Economy. Green economy is mainly based on sectors such as renewable energy, green buildings, clean transportation, water management, waste management and land management. Green economies are the growth models for global sustainability.”