DUBAI: Over the past six decades, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has contributed to supporting social, economic and environmental sustainability, in Dubai, according to an integrated institutional approach. This approach aims to serve the community and strengthen cohesion among all its members.

This is based on Dewa’s institutional values - stakeholders’ happiness, good governance, excellence, innovation, and sustainability. Dewa has launched its community initiatives within an institutional framework and an integrated system that includes plans, initiatives, implementation and evaluation, based on the Global Reporting Initiative, GRI, to ensure the sustainability of its results. Dewa allocates eight per cent of its sales revenue to CSR initiatives, and works with various public and private organisations to implement these initiatives.

Dewa works to promote Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, and to consolidate a spirit of voluntarism among Dewa employees and community members, in general. This has helped DEWA become a pioneering example of CSR. Dewa has also changed the name of its Customer Relations division to Customer Happiness, to focus on the quality of CSR initiatives, and not the quantity.

The process of developing Dewa’s CSR strategy goes through several phases.

WAM