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UAE companies have increased investments in sustainability and environmental data collection.
More than seven out of 10, 73.5% of companies plan to increase their investment in sustainability strategies, while six out of 10, or 59.6% of companies have initiated environmental data collection within the past five years, according to a survey by technology company SAP.
Nearly all, or 98% of surveyed companies said that reporting on environmental issues inform their strategic and operational decision-making, while more than half (51%) said that this occurs to a strong degree.
Among the surveyed companies, 40.4% have been collecting environmental data for a period of two to five years, and 19.2% have been collecting data for less than two years.
A small minority (2%) have been collecting environmental data for 20 years or longer.
Most of the companies (73.5%) are planning to increase investment in sustainability, while 13.9% plan to maintain current levels of investments.
Only 2% had plans to decrease their existing investment, while 0.7% said they had no investment plans.
Nearly one third (30.1%), said they expect to see a positive return in less than three years, while 34.9% said they expect to see it in three to five years, 28.8% are looking to the longer term saying they expect to see a positive return from 5 to 10 years.
Sergio Maccotta, senior vice president of SAP Middle East and Southern Africa, said the survey found that 49.7% of UAE companies see a strong positive relationship between profitability and environmental sustainability, and a further 35.1% describe it as a moderately positive relationship.
More than half of the surveyed companies (53.6%), see a strong positive relationship between competitiveness and environmental sustainability, and a further 33.8% perceive a moderately positive relationship between the two.
(Reporting by Imogen Lillywhite; editing by Daniel Luiz)
