PURPOSE: The Zakat, Tax, and Customs Authority (ZATCA) strive to be a leader in environmental and sustainable practices. The leadership at ZATCA recognizes that long-term business success depends on providing customers with high-quality services with the intention of ensuring "No Harm" to the environment wherever ZATCA operates by achieving environmental compliance excellence. ZATCA has developed and implemented a comprehensive Health, Safety & Environmental management system (HSEMS) to achieve this.
One of the core elements of the HSEMS is the Environmental and Sustainability Policy (E&S policy) and ZATCA shall ensure that E&S policy:
- Remains appropriate to the purpose and context of the organization, including the nature, scale, and environmental impacts of its activities and services.
- Provides a framework for setting environmental and sustainability objectives; and
- Is supported by providing the necessary financial, technical, and human resources to achieve the goals of environmental and sustainability standards.
COMMITMENTS: ZATCA within the defined scope of the HSE Management System and under this Environmental and Sustainability policy is committed to:
- Provide full support for preventing pollution and protecting the environment or minimizing the impact of our activities on the environment, including conservation of natural resources, efficient use of energy, use of sustainable practices, effective waste management and reduction in emissions.
- Ensure transparency in the reporting of the ZATCA’s environmental performance and knowledge sharing.
- Fulfil its compliance obligations that include applicable Environmental laws /regulations & other applicable requirements.
- Maintain a program of continual improvement of the HSE management system to enhance HSE performance.
AIMS & OBJECTIVES: In line with the above commitments, the aims of the Environmental and Sustainability policy are to achieve the following objectives:
- Implement and maintain an effective Environmental Management System (part of the HSEMS) in conformance with the International standard ISO 14001:2015.
- Carry out all our operations and work practices in an environmentally responsible manner with a precautionary approach and in line with recognized environmental standards and international best practices, emphasizing the improvement of efficiency in using natural resources, electricity, and fuel.
- Establish methods to identify the Environmental aspects & impact from our activities; and implement suitable control measures to eliminate (first) or minimize (if not practically possible) the environmental impacts.
- Apply a “no blame policy” to remove obstacles or barriers to reporting environmental incidents, spillages, and near-misses.
- Set environmental and sustainability performance objectives: monitor, measure and analyze them to improve processes and services continually.
- Develop and implement plans to respond to and recover from any emergency or crisis which may result in a substantial environmental impact.
- Promote the protection of ecosystems through employee awareness programs and stakeholder engagement.
- Ensure employees and contractors are aware of the environmental impacts of their work activities and encourage them through regular awareness and training to minimise those impacts.
- Develop a supply chain that prioritises local, sustainable & responsibly sourced products and services, which meets or surpasses international best practices and standards.
IMPLEMENTATION & COMMUNICATION: ZATCA’s leadership and all management functions are responsible for implementing and communicating this policy to all employees, contractors, stakeholders and interested parties as appropriate. The E&S policy shall be reviewed annually to ensure that it is appropriate and relevant to our vision, mission, values, and commitments, and meet the evolving needs of the HSE management system. All contractors and subcontractors working at ZATCA must follow this policy and meet the requirements of ZATCA's HSE management system while providing their services.
