Sustainability is integrated into ADCB’s governance starting with the Board Executive Committee (BEC), which provides board-level oversight.
The Group Sustainability Committee (GSC) – a tier 1 committee within the Bank (demonstrating its importance) is responsible for setting the ADCB sustainability strategy and ensuring its implementation within relevant core business functions. This encompasses strategic commitments, policies, targets and KPIs, reporting and disclosures, communications and training.
The GSC is chaired by the Group Chief Financial Officer (GCFO) and consists of members of the Management Executive Committee (MEC) to ensure senior management accountability for embedding sustainable business practices into their respective teams’ ways of working. The GSC is the main decision-making body for all matters related to the Group Sustainability Strategy. The GSC reports progress to MEC, and subsequently the BEC.
The GSC is supported by a Group Sustainability Team (GST), with the Head of Sustainability reporting to the GCFO. The GST is responsible for: identifying, proposing and managing strategic initiatives; capturing data and reporting to stakeholders; providing daily support to teams across the Bank with subject matter expertise; setting common standards and policies; and building the culture of sustainable thinking across the organisation. The GST makes recommendations to the GSC, including the proposal of working groups required with specific mandates to address key risks or opportunities to the business. The GST acts as the secretariat to the GSC.
The GST works closely with Sustainability Business Partners (SBPs) who have been identified across business departments in the organisation, including each subsidiary to ensure bank-wide engagement on sustainability-related topics.