Chalhoub Group Partners With TotalEnergies To Expand Its Transition To Clean Energy Under DEWA’s Shams Dubai Initiative

Chalhoub Group celebrates with its partner TotalEnergies, a worldwide leader in the development of solar solutions, the commissioning of DEWA-encouraged solar photovoltaics (PV) rooftops, and carports.

The partnership is a testimony to the impact that private-public collaborations have on driving national and global agendas on climate change mitigation. In line with the UAE’s commitment to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, Chalhoub Group has set bold ambitions to pave the way to be a net-zero company by 2040. This partnership contributes to these goals by bringing together the regulatory framework under DEWA’s initiative Shams Dubai and industry expertise and technology by TotalEnergies.

The solar photovoltaics (PV) rooftops and carports have been installed on two of Chalhoub Group’s buildings in Jebel Ali Head Office 2 and Dubai Investment Park (DIP) Warehouse, bringing the total to four buildings since the Group shifted to a largescale uptake of renewable energy in 2018. To date, 34 percent of the Group’s electricity demand at the four buildings is met through solar energy and the Group has installed 3.5 MWp of solar capacity, covering a surface equivalent to almost 3 football pitches. As a result, Chalhoub Group will reduce its CO₂ emissions by more than 2,400 tons of CO₂-eq per year which is equivalent to planting over 62,000 trees annually.   

Commenting on this partnership, Florence Bulte, Chief Sustainability Officer at Chalhoub Group, said, “We are committed to building long-term partnerships to achieve our sustainability goals. We can only reach our carbon reduction targets through collaborations with industry experts and regulators that facilitate projects of this scale. Our aim is to integrate renewable energy to replace fossil fuel-based grid electricity and to shift to net zero to meet local and global agendas. For the future, we are looking into renewable energy transition at our premises in Saudi Arabia.”

“TotalEnergies has completed, with excellence, several solar projects and renewable projects in the UAE. These initiatives are fully in line with the Company’s strategy and are contributing to the Climate Ambition of the country,” said Hamady Sy, Managing Director TotalEnergies Renewables Distributed Generation Middle East and Africa. “We are delighted to accompany companies such as Chalhoub in their energy transition, in the Middle East and Africa region.”

Chalhoub Group plans to continue upgrading their building facilities to optimize the use of electricity and water resources to proceed with their carbon reduction mechanisms in line with their efforts to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040.