"Dubai Islamic" Launches a series to finance the sustainable transformation of priority sectors
Dubai, June 25 / WAM / Dubai Islamic Bank today launched the “Opening Horizons of Sustainable Finance” series, which is a new platform specialized in economic sectors, designed with the aim of supporting priority sectors and accelerating their transition towards a more sustainable and future-ready economy.
The inaugural edition of the series, titled “Real Estate Transformation,” brought together more than 80 senior stakeholders, including policymakers, regulators, real estate developers, contractors, architects, engineers, sustainability experts and supply chain leaders.
The event was opened with a keynote speech delivered by Dr. Adnan Chilwan, CEO of Dubai Islamic Group, was followed by the official announcement of adopting a set of commitments related to sustainability with customers, with the aim of translating the sectoral dialogue into concrete practical steps in the market.
Dubai Islamic concluded an official financing agreement for a project pre-certified by the LEED system with Azizi Real Estate Development Company, in support of developing a project that complies with internationally recognized green building standards, thus enhancing the role of sustainable financing in developing high-performance real estate projects and assets.
The signing ceremony was witnessed by Mirwais Azizi, Founder and Chairman of Azizi Developments, and Farhad Azizi, CEO of Azizi Group.
The event also witnessed Dubai Islamic signing an official memorandum of understanding for guidance services in the field of sustainability with Imtiaz Real Estate Development Company, establishing a framework for cooperation across the various stages of customers’ transformation journey, starting from defining trends and a road map for sustainability, all the way to financing readiness, building partnerships within the system, preparing reports, and auditing and verification processes. The signing was witnessed by Masih Imtiaz, CEO of Imtiaz Real Estate Development Company.
Chilwan said that the real estate sector was an essential focus for economic development, enhancing the competitiveness of cities, and improving the quality of life in communities. Today, with the acceleration of the transition towards a low-carbon economy, the real estate sector also represents one of the most important opportunities available to us in terms of sustainability and business, as it contributes to determining the efficiency of resource consumption, developing projects, allocating capital, and the extent of our cities’ ability to withstand and be sustainable for future generations. This is why we chose the real estate sector to be the first axis in the “Opening the Horizons of Sustainable Finance” series.
He added: We believe that sustainable financing should not remain just a classification or an independent product in itself, but rather it should be transformed into a work system that links capital with measurable impact. Our role is to support customers to move from ambition to implementation by developing reliable and implementable transition plans, defining practical performance indicators, structuring financing to achieve real results, and connecting them with the appropriate partners within the system.
The launch of the series reinforces Dubai Islamic’s broader sustainability agenda, and the bank has committed to raising the proportion of sustainable assets to 15% of the total financing and investment portfolio by 2030, with nearly half of this goal achieved so far.
By the end of 2025, Dubai Islamic succeeded in allocating approximately 20 billion dirhams and directing them towards sustainable and sustainability-related financing. It invested approximately 9 billion UAE dirhams in sukuks that comply with environmental, social and institutional governance standards. It also contributed to facilitating transactions in the capital markets for sustainable debt with a value of approximately 30 billion dirhams.
The forum included presentations from elite experts and executive-level dialogue sessions with the participation of representatives from the Department of Energy, Knight Frank, and Arada, where discussions addressed the opportunities and challenges that shape the future of sustainable real estate, including regulatory frameworks, creating real value through sustainability, the additional return of green buildings, financing modernization and rehabilitation projects, building performance data, circular supply chains, and waste management strategies.
The launch of the sustainability guidance platform was one of the highlights of the event. It is a Dubai Islamic platform designed to support institutions throughout the entire transformation journey, starting from setting strategic directions and building capabilities, all the way to financing, entering markets, measuring impact, preparing reports, and auditing and verification processes.
The event also included collaborative workshops focused on enhancing financing readiness, enhancing the value of assets through sustainability practices, and accelerating the application of circular economy concepts in the real estate sector.
The sessions concluded with the launch of a sectoral cooperation charter, under which participants committed to continuing cooperation through a series of specialized round tables with the aim of accelerating the development of practical market-led solutions to support sustainable real estate financing.
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