A SUSTAINABILITY MANAGER

After years working as a Civil Structural Engineer, Nisrin Indorewala decided it was time for a change. Based in Sharjah, she tells us about her new role in the sustainability team.  Four months in, she says it’s everything she hoped it would be.

I reached a point where I felt I wanted to do something different. I wanted to learn something new – and do something that would keep me energised mentally. Environment, sustainability and conservation are deeply embedded in my values, and I always wanted to be more involved with work in this area. A colleague encouraged me to join our company’s Environmental Sustainability Network group, which is a great platform for sharing information, ideas, commending individual efforts and motivating others to do more. This and other employee networks, for example, the Women’s Network group, have made a great positive difference – by providing a platform to so many globally to explore new information and possibilities, to think and explore beyond one’s role, and to provide avenues for networking. Subsequently, an opportunity came up to join the Sustainability team, I applied and was successful!  

As well as my passion for the environment and social justice, I had a good number of transferable skills that suited the role. My years of experience in dealing with different situations and working with people from various backgrounds helped. There are many global standards that we have to follow and I’ll be conducting audits and training colleagues and subcontractors down the line. This requires the ability to grasp new content quickly and easily, as well as understand contractual, legal and technical terms. You also need to be able to convey and communicate information in a clear and concise manner – strengths that I have. Each project and office have dedicated sustainability staff and the corporate sustainability team supports and coordinates with them. I also engage and mobilise our site teams, keep them motivated and help with reporting. It’s important to be able to interact and build a rapport with people from different cultures and backgrounds.

My current focus is Corporate Social Responsibility which entails Social Performance and Social Investment. When we build a plant, our activities can affect local communities in a number of ways, for example, in terms of natural resources, infrastructure, traffic, and the influx of workers. So, we carry out community impact assessments – for instance, there could be additional traffic due to the transport of equipment and construction materials, or an influx of hundreds if not thousands of workers. It’s very important to keep local stakeholders engaged and on the Duqm Refinery project in Oman, for example, we employed young locals to work in the Social Performance team to better co-ordinate with the local community representatives and local mayor. We also invest in the local communities in which we operate. Take Duqm again; we have just invested a significant amount in the upgrading of a local market. We are also working on an initiative with our subcontractors to re-purpose and recycle site materials (wood, etc.) to build benches, chairs and desks for the community beach and local schools.

Most clients now require Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting via elaborate questionnaires as a part of pre-qualification. I support bids with this data. I also update and publish this data on our company portal. Our ESG rating is an important aspect of being qualified to win contracts – mainly in Europe and it’s also gaining importance globally. There are many technical parameters and I’m learning on the job.  

I am where I eventually wanted to be. But I also feel like my journey has just begun. Sustainability is a vast subject and I’m beginning to understand what conservation and upholding human rights and serving local communities really takes. I hope to make a difference in people’s lives as well as in our conservation efforts. I know my contribution is going to be small in this large universe, but I am glad I am doing my bit.

I love to tend to my plants. I have many plants indoors and on my balcony. I’ve not been very successful with growing vegetables, but I have nurtured herbs, flowering and general plants. Just watching and tending to the plants is a mindful experience for me – I lose track of time.

Hear from colleagues about their experience