Henadi Al-Saleh - Porsche Center Kuwait Interview

[0:03]We share a common vision for a sustainable world and apply it to our line of businesses. Meet three professionals whose companies have taken steps forward to achieve sustainability in their line of business. How is sustainability incorporated in your line of business? So from Agility logistics' perspective, sustainability has been near and dear to our heart for the past 15 years. We look at it from two aspects, both in the investment aspect and the operational aspect. In terms of operation, we invest in three core areas: fair labor rights, the community, and the environment. And from the investor's perspective, it's really important for us to invest in sustainable, long-term investments which contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions. CO2 issue is very important to focus on. At Alargan, uh, we are a building developer company. So, we need to focus on reducing emissions as much as possible. And we started with that very early on by building our offices to reflect who we are. LEED is a, is a measurement of how you have saved on your emissions. So we got a platinum rating in our offices, and we are now trying to introduce this to all builders to follow suit in that regard. focus on carbon economy and circular carbon economy is one of our core businesses. So, uh, we always try to make our clients benefit in in both economical aspect by reducing operation costs and minimizing the effect of uh, carbon emission. How do you see sustainability changing your business sectors? I think sustainability is impacting our sector today already. And what you see is a lot of corporates doubling down on sustainability. And what you see alongside the sector, not only in Kuwait, but globally, people are investing in different alternative types of transportation, alternative fuel for be it ships or airlines. Uh, and we are helping other, our clients, our partners to achieve that from old perspective, from energy efficiency, from development of renewables, uh, setting up reducing their costs, improving their uh, carbon footprint. There's a big role to play here to enhance and improve the way we build. And to do that, we need to educate the society that they can achieve the same purpose if we can build less. It's very simple, you know, sustainability will go much further when you are more efficient in the way you build. Do you believe companies have a role in leading the world towards a more sustainable one? I think definitely corporates have a role to play and all the stakeholders around them have a role to play. But especially corporates because they have deep pockets and they need to invest in technologies for the future, and they need to be able to focus on that R&D in order to be able to bring that technology to the masses. Larger companies, whether regional or international, are more recognized. And they can get grants from governments, from international institutes to do R&D plus their deep pockets. Now, with this R&D, every innovation they come up with will benefit everyone. The other thing that corporate play a major role in is also, which is a byproduct of that is improving uh, volume of sup basically supply. Is being sustainable a challenging step for businesses? I think yes and no. So, it's easy in terms of making it part of the agenda, creating the focal point and building sort of the right core team to sort of rally and execute. The no part is it's not simply what you invest in, but that needs an infrastructure around it to support it. extremely expensive. Today energy cost is so low in Kuwait. How can we make it make sense of of doing savings or doing investment in in in this sector? We need to see legislation that comes into place either to support people who are going to go into investment. I have to concur. It's it's very difficult. It's it's difficult from all all aspect. So we need to change the way we think. We need to change how it's operating. How was your driving experience with the Porsche Taycan? What's the beauty? Um, I love the design, the way it looks. uh, aerodynamic. The color is beautiful also as well. Um, driving it. I think that's the future. We cannot deny it. Wow, I thought it was fantastic. I thought it was amazing. First of all, going into the car, it's beautiful dashboard, all electric. And when you drive it, it is so smooth, so slick, but still extremely sturdy. The best part about it is like stealth mode, it's like silent. It's a Porsche. So, I'm I'm driving a Porsche, you know, there's this uh, torque, there's there's uh stability in driving, you know, the feeling, the dashboard, the looks, the aerodynamics. You know, I felt like, you know, Henadi 007 driving up the driveway, so two thumbs up. By 2030, Porsche aims for a CO2-neutral balance sheet, and a future where 80% of Porsche cars are with an electric motor. Cars will be produced from 100% renewable energy in a more sustainable supply chain.