Agriculture is one of the most important challenges of the 21st century

Prerit Goel

MEBusiness

Prerit Goel spoke to Middle East Business about their recently launched Sustainability Report. Goel shared key insights about company’s sustainability goals, and how they plan to achieve them through social responsibility, as well as through alternative energy solutions. Goel also shared his perspective with us about challenges faced by the industry amid the unprecedented global pandemic, Covid-19.

Can you tell us about the reason GP Global has launched its first sustainability report?

At GP Global, Sustainability is at the core of our values. Our sustainable approach has enabled us to contribute to nearly three decades of global development, which will carry us into the next decade and beyond. As a responsible organization, we aspire to create growth opportunities through our sustainability initiatives that will benefit our business partners, clients and society as a whole. This is why we launched our new Sustainability Report – to be able to streamline and further enhance our sustainability impact. We plan to continue delivering sustainable outcomes with an even greater force, which will span across our entire portfolio.

What is your approach to sustainability in the non-conventional energy space? How will this help fill global energy gaps?

We believe that sustainable commodity solutions have the potential to deliver real progress and development when it comes to the health of our environment. This is why we have decided to take on a new approach and think outside the box. We had to ask ourselves, how can we achieve our sustainable mission with new and innovative alternatives? This is why we have decided to invest in non-conventional energy business markets including Biomass Projects such as Briquetting Plants, Captive Power Plants and Steam Generation Plants, among others.

One example of how we plan to explore filling global energy gaps is through utilising the sustainability potential of biodiesel extracted from used cooking oil (UCO). This will be used as a potential replacement of petro-diesel fuel in various applications.

As we continue to further explore this space, we aspire to create growth opportunities that benefit not only our business partners, clients and economies, but also our environment and society at large.

Now that GP Global is involved in Ethanol trading across the Globe, can you shed more light on which process will ethanol be used in and how it will affect carbon emissions?

Depending on the feedstock or processes utilized, ethanol has the potential to reduce carbon emission from 50%, up to 100%. Having identified this environmental benefit of ethanol, we are currently trading across global markets, predominantly in Central America, Europe, West Africa as well as certain Asian Markets which are focused on both fuel and industrial feed-stocks.

On the social front, ethanol also serves as an important livelihood source, of which the labor requirements lie in rural landscapes, especially in less industrial countries.

How do you maintain sustainability and traceability in agrifood products?

Agriculture is likely to be one of the most important challenges of the 21st century as growing demand in emerging markets need to be met. We have been eager to play a distinct role in helping to feed and nourish people all over the world and we are strongly committed to sourcing agri-food products with traceability and value.

Currently, we are focused on specific markets in India and the Middle East in order to further grow our sustainability initiative for agri-food production. We have been working on building supply chains from ‘the farm gate to the fork and factory’, through trading in agricultural commodities such as grains and oilseeds for animal feed.

We recently received GMP+ certification in February 2020, fully endorsing our capability to source and market grains and pulses with high standards of traceability and sustainability, and we plan to further grow this offering to further impact communities positively in the future. With regard to the global challenges posed by Covid-19, the world is moving in a more sustainable direction. How has this pandemic influenced GP Global’s approach to sustainability? Was the pandemic a catalyst for the company’s initiatives?

The Covid-19 global pandemic, has posed a new set of challenges on individuals, communities and businesses across the world. Amid these challenges we have definitely seen a collective increase in the awareness and consideration for our environment. Examples of this can be seen in the clearing up of Co2 emissions as well as reduced pollution while people stay at home..

Our sustainability goals have been in place and growing for many years. We have been committed to delivering sustainable outcomes across our entire portfolio for the preservation of the planet and its inhabitants from the onset. Yet, the pandemic has further encouraged us, on a group level, to push the boundaries of our sustainable framework. It has not been a direct catalyst per se, but it has been an eye-opening occurrence that must inspire us to collectively do more for our world.

How are GP Global’s ambitions aligned with that of the UAEs own sustainability development goals ? Our vision at GP Global is to become a global energy conglomerate that catalyses growth by expanding into new markets, which we have been successfully working towards through the expansion of our product portfolio across the world, while always supporting our customers. However, we believe sustainability goes hand in hand with business development. We believe that we are not just delivering a physical asset to our customers and communities, but also an enabling environment that will benefit them in the long term.

In line with the United Nations Global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the UAE 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, our Sustainability Report along with our many initiatives fully support local and regional agendas for sustainability, from an enterprise-wide perspective. SDG Goal 7, for Affordable and Clean Energy, is one of the goals we are focused on contributing to with our efforts, as well as other SDGs such as Goal 15, Life on Land and Goal 13, Climate Action.