PIC issues first 2012-2013 sustainability report

The Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC) has issued its first sustainability report for the period 2012-2013, which is an unprecedented step within the Kuwaiti corporate environment. The report aims to send a message to partners that PIC is committed to developing a sustainable operating model, which includes economic, social, and environmental elements of decision making, PIC CEO and member of the board of directors Asaad Al-Saad said in a press statement. The statement was released on the sidelines of the company's celebration of the issue of the sustainability report, Sunday night. The subject of sustainable development is still relatively new in the Middle East region, and even more so in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Al-Saad indicated. He pointed out that though it is a new subject, it is an issue which is cause for much global pressure and significant change and challenge, which affects the local market and energy-exporting regions, including the Arabian Gulf. In addition, he mentioned that recent global crises had shed light on the indisputable fact that, "our world is more coherent and convergent now than any time in the past, and the affluence enjoyed by our countries is also more inter-dependent and inter-connected." This prompted PIC, he said, to reconsider global issues and include them within the long-term strategies. Furthermore, Al-Saad defined sustainable development as "a development that meets the needs of the present without risking next generation's capability in meeting their needs," noting that "in order to develop our works in a sustainable way, we must consolidate economic, environmental, and social goals within our work strategy, through which we seek to find local solutions that fit our conditions in Kuwait."