Environmentalist or Humanist? My Journey with CSR

21 August 2026 · 5 min read

Teams planting trees at a corporate CSR day — A corporate planting day, one of the CSR formats we run for UAE teams.

I was always inclined to work for and attracted to companies that gave back to people in particular. Giving Wings to People and Ideas at Red Bull was the motto of everything we did. Making people the heroes, the athletes the stars and inspiring people to be at their best allowed me various opportunities to make impact on people and their ideas. At Malja A Red Bull Space in Bahrain, we built and created a space for young artists, musicians and creatives – a free space where they can learn, create, collaborate, exhibit and even sell their art to the local audience. A place where some learned their first DJ Lesson or worked on music production software for the first time. Some exhibited their first painting or recited their first poem. And even an amazing local fusion band called Aalaat launched their album from there during a live show. It was amazing to see how through my work, a whole new community of artists and creatives started to flourish – it was like a revolution. A whole change in an island hungry for artistic opportunities. WE MADE IMPACT – WE TOUCHED HEARTS… A LOT OF THEM!

In Lebanon and while working for a top local Bakery & Convenience Stores brand, we contributed funds to cancer patients and covered the expenses of 1 breast cancer patient’s treatment at a time of financial and family crises. We not just saved lives, but also saved a family from dissolving into desperation and financial ruin that only breast cancer treatment can bring along. By contributing 5% of the revenue from Manakish – a local flat bread item, the company did not just increase sales of the category as a result of the campaign; but also managed to spread positive brand awareness and brand loyalty among our existing consumers. We won the ladies for the day!

During another occasion and for a local mall brand, we invited elderly citizens living in a communal home not only for a shopping spree but also to be part of awareness content about Elderly Women living away from family for the occasion of Mother’s Day. Titled “Don’t Forget Your Mother” this video content campaign featured 3 beautifully filmed episodes that takes the audience of a journey into the lives of various women living in the elderly home, reminding people not to forget their mothers despite the distance or the conditions. The Episodes were viewed by millions bringing many of viewers into tears and laughter.

These were 3 key decisive moments in my career, all those CSR ideas were actually generated by myself and the teams I worked with, and I was lucky to be working with brands that encouraged and supported local communities and especially the local people.

I was always inclined to humanistic causes but I know many that are equally passionate about bringing change in environmental fields. Our client Al Baik has done plenty of planting to support the planet and clients like Amazon AWS care about both human causes where you can find them distributing food packages to workers in Labor camps in Dubai, planting mangroves and kayaking at Al Jubail Mangroves in Abu Dhabi or even doing Yoga in Pink for Pink October and Breast Cancer Awareness.

Whether you are an Environmentalist or a Humanist, there is always something you can do at work to make life more meaningful for others or the planet, and I loved working with brands who did that more intentionally than others such Red Bull. But one thing for sure, is that it is all our shared responsibility to care for people and the planet, so we might as well do CSR with intention.

I believe that environmental causes take precedence over human causes because Mother Earth is necessary for our survival but we are not so necessary for her Survival, but what gives me the kick personally is human causes because I believe that the only way to fix and save the planet is by fixing the human condition and I may take the call of calling my self a Humanist when it comes to my personal work in the CSR field, but I know for sure that there are many human beings taking environmental actions and I enjoy every little bit of executing environmental CSR initiatives because they both serve a higher human and planetary purpose. So what are you Environmentalist or Humanist?