Security Discussions: Sustainability

In this series of articles, we’ll break down every panel discussion at the Security Middle East Conference 2024! Learn the highlights and moments that made the event such a ground-breaking success. 

Putting together the Security Middle East Conference agenda, we looked at the most pressing issues facing the industry at the moment and realised the topic of sustainability, and securing the future is prevalent to all businesses around the world. With this, we put together the panel discussion titled, How can the Industry create a green and secure future?

Our third-panel discussion began, with Muttahir Salim moderating. Muttahir Salim is the Associate Director of Security for Buro Happold, and has extensive experience monitoring the state of sustainability, joining him on stage were:

Saeed Ba-Dugaish: Manager Security Operations – Aramco

Dr. Ahmed Sakalla: Chief Operations Manager – Wafrat Al Kheer Group

Farah Ghanem: Head of Climate Change & Policies – Alpin Limited

After introducing himself and the other professionals on stage, Muttahir Salim asked about the starting point of sustainability, and its role within the Saudi Vision 2030 initiative. Starting by analyzing the big picture, Farah Ghanem answered: “In terms of strategies to align the security sector with sustainability sectors and initiatives. I want to talk about where does that start? It starts with the manufacturers. It starts with products, or in cyber security, it starts with databases. There isn’t an industry or sector which doesn’t have a touch point with sustainability.”

Each thought-leader on stage, positioned sustainability through the lens of their own experiences. Ahmed Sakalla discussed the role of the Wafrat Al Kheer Group, and how sustainability is a starting point for all of their initiatives, especially when looked at under the scope of ‘ESG’. All projects handled by the Wafrat Al Kheer Group, begin by an analysis of their impact on the Environment, the Social, and Governance.

Responding to this, Saeed Ba-Dugaish developed new insights into how Aramco approaches sustainability and aims to achieve ‘net zero’. Throughout the discussion, the definition of net zero became a topic of debate.

“We need to define what we need by Net Zero. We need to avoid emissions as far as possible, by projects that can offset the CO2 we do use.
Going back to Aramco’s strategies, we assess ourselves. We look for strategies to combine and bridge our initiatives.”

The panel would go on to agree that sustainability starts at the planning phase, and must be consistently thought through by dedicated professionals, invested in the emissions they were producing, and in the execution of their projects.

Saeed added: “You need to have dedicated people. They need to be invested, need to be engaged. They need to know that our items are moving in the right direction.

We then work with other companies and name these best practices, whilst we need to be committed to our operational strategies and also optimizing our strategies to use our environment appropriately.”