Sanjay Sethi of Phoenix Group Wins CSO of the Year 2018 Award and Phoenix is the Sustainable Company of the Year … reports Asian Lite News.
The ‘Meet The Farmers Conference’ (MTFC) conferred the Chief Sustainability Officer of the Year 2018 Award to Sanjay Sethi, Director Sustainability of Phoenix Group. Phoenix also won the Sustainable Company of The Year Award at the 2nd edition of MTFC in Dubai.
The event was organized with a goal to bring together Agribusiness Stakeholders in the ecosystem to discuss ”The Future of Agribusiness” and create a synergy between agribusinesses, farmers, and stakeholders in Africa and the Middle East.
Handing over the awards to the winners in six different categories, HE Sultan Darwish, Director of Trade Negotiations & WTO Department, Ministry of Economy, UAE congratulated Mr. Sethi for the excellent work done by Phoenix Group in the field of sustainability.
Phoenix is a member of Global Agri-business Alliance (GAA), a CEO-led private sector global initiative formed to tackle social, environmental and sustainability challenges to help farmers worldwide. A US$2 billion enterprise – Phoenix Group’s Executive Chairman Mr. Gaurav Dhawan was recently nominated as Chair of GAA for 2019.
On receiving the recognition, Mr. Sethi said: “Agribusinesses have a crucial role to play in embedding sustainable policies and practices to safeguard our shared resources and strengthen rural livelihoods. As a global agribusiness company, Phoenix is committed to adopting climate-smart agriculture and in finding practical solutions to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.”
He said that Phoenix has implemented various sustainability initiatives in its projects world over noteworthy being start of sustainable rice project in Vietnam, water stewardship project in Karnal India, small holder development project in Baramati India, stakeholder engagement in Kazakhstan, environment friendly products – Envirocare in UAE, Food security projects in Africa and Yemen, and water conservation in farming in Ukraine.
“Phoenix’s 1% Change initiative got special mention during the conference and has inspired many to make small incremental changes regularly instead of only waiting for big change to happen” he said.
He said that by working collectively with other stakeholders and colleagues, Phoenix is determined to take the lead on sustainability in the agri-business sector. He also thanked GAA, World Business Council on Sustainable Development, supply chain partners and colleagues in achieving this prestigious recognition.
In India, Phoenix and the GAA have been working collaboratively with the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) and local implementation partner the Centre for International Projects Trust, Delhi, to develop a water stewardship catchment plan in Karnal in Haryana, India.
The significance of the water stewardship programme comes in the context of India projected to be in the category of water stressed nations in the near future.
“As a group, Phoenix is engaged in multiple initiatives across the world, particularly in Africa, CIS, Middle East, India and South East Asia to tackle sustainability challenges across the value chain of farming and agri-business. We consider this award nomination as an endorsement of our best practices and global vision,” Mr. Sethi said.
Phoenix Group is steering swiftly under the dynamic leadership of Gaurav Dhawan and is engaged in the production, procurement, processing, merchandising and distribution of agrifoods globally.
Last year, the Group moved 10.57 million metric tonnes of commodities across the world achieving a profit of US$67.39 million, up by 42 per cent compared to the previous corresponding period. The Group on its own operates 100,000 hectares of farming land in various countries across the world.
A signatory of the UN Global Compact, Phoenix operates 10 business verticals in 22 countries from its central operations hub in Dubai. According to the UN Compact, a sustainable global food and agriculture system would create new economic value of more than US$2 trillion by 2030.