The National ESG Club Held Its Final Meeting of 2023 on December 13

The meeting took place at the House of Economics, and we thank the leadership of the Institute of Economic Research for hosting.

Nurlan Kusainovich Rakhmetov, Chairman of the ESG Club, outlined the key challenges and tasks for building the club’s effective operation. Club members supported the proposal to develop a Club Strategy that will reflect the key vision, challenges, and opportunities for its development.

Yuliya Yakupbayeva, Partner at GPI Group and Chairperson of Green Urban, spoke about the results of the subcommittee’s work over the past year.

“Our Committee was established in September 2022. We defined our core values around the motto ‘Business for cities, cities for life.’ We are confidently building an ecosystem for improving the comfort of the urban environment across 10 areas — from Health City to sustainable education and tourism. Today, our community has 60 member companies, a website, and an Instagram page. We actively hold open meetings in the Urban Talk format, and a number of cooperation agreements and memorandums have been signed. Overall, we see very strong interest in this work, and our expert capacity continues to grow. Many thanks to all Community members for their active participation this year!” noted Yuliya Yakupbayeva.

One of the highlights of the event was the Green Office Award ceremony, organized under the guidance of the ESG Club’s “Green Urban” subcommittee. The winners of the international award from Kazakhstan were Baiterek National Managing Holding JSC, with the Development Bank of Kazakhstan taking second place, both of which demonstrated excellent results in integrating ESG approaches into office building standards.

The award winners expressed their gratitude to the organizers and the ESG Club for the invitation to participate and for their support:

“Allow us to thank the organizers of the Award, the jury, and the National ESG Club for recognizing our Holding’s efforts. This not only reflects our commitment to environmental responsibility but also places our company at the forefront of sustainable practices in the country.

As you saw in our competition video, the Holding is successfully implementing Green Office principles and the Sustainable Development Goals in its office and its operations. The Holding actively extends these same principles to its subsidiary organizations, which in turn extend them to their clients and partners,” noted Madina Yerzhanova, Director of the Strategy and Corporate Development Department at Baiterek National Managing Holding JSC.

“The Development Bank of Kazakhstan thanks the National ESG Club and GPI Group for the opportunity to participate in the international Green Office Awards 2023 category and for the high assessment of our sustainable development activities.

Together with the Asian Development Bank, the Bank has developed a medium-term Roadmap for implementing ESG principles, and work is actively underway to obtain an ESG rating from the international agency Sustainable Fitch. Competitions such as the Green Office Awards 2023 help identify and showcase the best examples of how the ‘green office’ concept improves company operations and what tools can be used to achieve this,” noted Perizat Omarova, Director of the Strategy and Big Data Analysis Department at the Development Bank of Kazakhstan.

At the event, the establishment of five new committees was announced, which will address various aspects of sustainability and social responsibility. These committees are intended to deepen engagement among club members, expand their influence, and support the development of new initiatives.

The ESG Club continues to play an important role in building an environmentally and socially responsible business community, remaining a forum for knowledge exchange and support for sustainable development initiatives.