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UNITY FOR CHANGE – أفق INITIATIVE: TRANSFORMING UAE RETAIL SUSTAINABILITY STANDARDS

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DUBAI, UAE, Dec. 19, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Unity for Change – أفق, an alliance led by Chalhoub Group, LVMH, Emaar Malls Management (L.L.C.), Majid Al Futtaim, and Aldar Properties, has unveiled its finalized sustainability goals. This groundbreaking framework focuses on reducing carbon emissions, minimizing waste to landfill, and promoting eco-design across UAE retail operations.

Launched at COP28 in 2023, the initiative brings together industry leaders to advance measurable environmental impact through collaboration and shared expertise. The defined objectives span three core pillars:

1. Energy Efficiency

Achieve 5% annual energy savings or carbon emissions reduction for all shopping malls starting 2024.KPIs include reducing energy consumption to:
– 300 kWh/m² for beauty stores by 2030.
– 300 kWh/m² for non-beauty stores by 2026.

2. Eco-Design

Implement a 12-criteria checklist for sustainable retail renovations and new projects, including:
– 50% energy-efficient lighting systems.
– VOC-free materials for paints and interiors.
– FSC-certified wood for at least 50% of installations.Guidelines will be distributed by early 2025 alongside compliance training programs.

3. Waste Management

Achieve zero waste to landfill by 2030 for LVMH and Chalhoub Group, with a 50% diversion goal for Aldar Properties, Emaar Malls, and Majid Al Futtaim.Implement digitized waste management systems by 2026 and unified policies with stakeholder training by April 2025.

Next Steps

The alliance will maintain momentum through actionable steps:

Detailed Implementation Guidelines: Manuals for energy efficiency, eco-design, and waste management will be shared in early 2025.Progress Dashboards: A digital system will track and share progress with stakeholders.Training Programs: Unified training content will roll out by December 2025 to drive compliance.

“This announcement marks a bold step forward in our collective mission to reduce carbon emissions and waste across the UAE’s retail landscape,” said Florence Bulte, Chief sustainability officer, Chalhoub Group. “One year on from the creation of Unity for Change, this partnership reflects our communal dedication to sustainability. By aligning our goals and pooling resources with LVMH, Emaar Malls Management (L.L.C.), Majid Al Futtaim, and Aldar Properties, we are redefining sustainability for the Middle East’s retail sector and leading ESG goals across the region’s prominent luxury market.”

Saoud Khoory, Chief Retail Officer, Aldar Investment said: “we are pleased to be part of this important sustainability collaboration, which brings together some of the largest retail players operating in the UAE. At Aldar, sustainability is at the core of everything we do, and our commitment to a net-zero future aligns with leading global real estate industry benchmarks. We recognize that impactful climate action requires collaboration, and we look forward to implementing the new sustainability framework across our retail assets. By adopting a whole value chain approach and working closely with our partners, we aim to create climate resilient places that deliver long-term social and economic value in the UAE and beyond.”

Ahmad Al Matrooshi, Executive Director, Emaar Properties, said: “At Emaar Malls Management (L.L.C.), sustainability is not just a goal; it is a responsibility we embrace wholeheartedly. Through Unity for Change, we proudly join industry leaders to redefine environmental stewardship in the retail sector. This marks a pivotal step in our commitment to eco-friendly innovation, energy efficiency, and waste reduction.”

Commenting on the progress made on Unity for Change, Ahmed El Shamy, Chief Executive Officer, Majid Al Futtaim Properties, said: “It’s been truly inspiring to see how the Unity for Change initiative has evolved since its announcement at COP28 last year. At Majid Al Futtaim, we are proud to stand alongside other industry leaders in this transformational partnership that reflects the urgency of tackling climate change. By uniting expertise and resources, we have outlined actionable goals to address critical challenges in waste management, energy efficiency, and eco-design, setting a scalable model for sustainability in the retail sector.”

“One year after the launch of Unity for Change, we are proud to see this pioneering collaboration in the UAE deliver a robust sustainability framework for the retail sector. By addressing key areas such as energy efficiency, eco-design, and waste management, this initiative reflects our collective ambition to redefine retail practices in harmony with environmental priorities. This milestone, presented during the LIFE 360 in Stores Awards, embodies the spirit of ‘Joining Forces’ to drive meaningful transformation and underscores our unwavering commitment to addressing climate challenges,” said Hélène Valade, LVMH Environmental Development Director. 

The findings and finalized objectives of this initiative were officially presented on December 12th in Paris, France, during the LVMH “LIFE 360 in Stores Awards” ceremony.

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ServiceNow launches AI Workflow Factory to turn workflow improvement into a continuous, agentic AI-powered loop

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India’s partner ecosystem to deploy new autonomous coding to scale global development 

MUMBAI, India, Oct. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW), the Super Intelligence Control Tower for business reinvention, today announced AI Workflow Factory and Autonomous Engineer solutions that discover where AI can improve work and deliver one unified way to build and run, and extend AI workflows across the enterprise to directly address the execution gaps caused by fragmented, legacy infrastructure.

Enterprises can use AI Workflow Factory and Autonomous Engineer solutions to scale business operations in days, not months, all while being governed by AI Control Tower. 

Announced in India at World Forum Mumbai, the news reinforces India’s role as one of the key markets for governed, enterprise-wide AI transformation. ServiceNow’s partner ecosystem in India is adopting AI Workflow Factory and deploying new developer capabilities including unattended coding for autonomous planning, building, and testing of implementation work with ServiceNow’s Autonomous Engineer. Developers get access to everything they need in one place to scale delivery, while retaining control of critical decisions.

“The next phase of AI demands connected execution, not fragmented solutions,” said Bhaskar Babu, ServiceNow Business Group India lead, Accenture. “ServiceNow’s AI Workflow Factory is designed to help organizations build and sustain AI automation across the applications and systems they already use. For our clients, this can help bridge the gap between AI investment and measurable business outcomes, while maintaining the visibility and governance needed to extend AI across the organization.”

“We are helping enterprises embrace systems of cognitive work where AI agents, enterprise knowledge and workflows come together with people driving direction and governance,” said Anant Adya, EVP and Co-Head, Cloud, Infrastructure and Security, Infosys. “ServiceNow’s AI Workflow Factory and Autonomous Engineer, together with Infosys Topaz and Infosys Cobalt, help enterprises move from isolated AI initiatives toward secure, scalable and continuously improving intelligent systems.” 

One platform, one governed loop with AI Workflow Factory

Instead of starting a new transformation project each time a business problem surfaces, every outcome helps reveal the next opportunity for multi-process improvement with AI Workflow Factory – a continuous workflow improvement loop to deliver repeatable AI transformation. The loop connects:

Process Mining – identifying which business processes should change, tied to the KPIs that business units measureAutonomous Engineer and Build Agent – helping teams to build new workflow improvements and control qualityApp Engine – to run the new, improved workflows, safely at scale

The business challenge could be to increase case deflection by 20 percent across several business units. Traditionally, an organisation would need to put together a mature case deflection team, and pilot in one business unit, before moving to the next. With AI Workflow Factory, the outcome leads the process. Process Mining shows where cases can be deflected today, then the ‘factory’ builds the workflows, AI agents roll them out across the business units in tandem and continue to refine this process against the listed outcome, all within the guardrails you set in AI Control Tower. Your developers, strategists, UX designers and product operators move off the build and on to the next innovation for your business.

People still set the direction and approve the outcome, while AI moves more of the work forward at scale, with the ServiceNow AI Control Tower enabling enterprises to govern AI assets throughout the loop.

“Customers in India and around the world are no longer asking whether AI can improve the business — they are asking how fast they can turn that improvement into measurable outcomes, safely and at scale,” said Amit Zavery, President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Product Officer, ServiceNow. “AI Workflow Factory brings the full cycle of reinvention onto the ServiceNow platform, so teams can move from idea to impact continuously, with control and governance built into every step.”

Move faster without giving up control

As AI takes on more work, enterprises need to maintain visibility and control, especially in regulated industries. AI Control Tower governs the workflows, decisions, and agent actions running through AI Workflow Factory. For enterprises in regulated sectors such as BFSI and telecommunications, ServiceNow India’s data centers provide resilience, auditability, and the oversight required to put AI to work responsibly.

Why this matters for India 

India’s enterprises are operationalizing AI faster than the global average, and enterprise AI investment grew 119% in a single year, one of the strongest showings among the markets ServiceNow surveyed in its 2026 Enterprise AI Maturity Index. The gap isn’t ambition or pace. It’s turning that speed into governed, connected execution: closing legacy integration gaps and containing the ‘solutions sprawl’ the same research flags as a top risk. That’s the specific problem AI Workflow Factory is built to close.

Connecting the enterprise with ServiceNow

Build applications and AI agents with ServiceNow, along with any AI development tools your teams also use, then run and scale them with the ServiceNow AI Platform under one governance model and one audit trail. Through Action Fabric, AI Workflow Factory extends that same governed loop to third-party AI agents and tools. The result is choice without sacrificing control and the AI Control Tower brings one governed view for the enterprise.

Availability: AI Workflow Factory is globally available today. Autonomous Engineer Early Access is available on request.

Media Contact

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CyberLogitec Brings Tag-Free Collision Prevention to Busan New Port

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Digital twin places workers and straddle carriers on a single map at BNCT

SEOUL, South Korea, Oct. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — CyberLogitec has deployed an AI-based collision prevention system at Busan New Container Terminal (“BNCT“), operator of Terminal 5 at Busan New Port, that detects workers without wearable tags and alerts straddle carrier drivers when a worker is close by in the same working lane.

The deployment comes as the industry focuses on vehicle–pedestrian safety. ICHCA International ranks pedestrians run over by vehicles, particularly by handling equipment, as a close second among the causes of cargo-handling fatalities, and in August 2026 PEMA, TT Club and ICHCA International jointly called for stronger collision-prevention measures across terminals.

At the core of the system is CyberLogitec’s digital twin-based real-time port monitoring platform, which places people and equipment on a single coordinate system. AI cameras on the STS cranes detect workers, and a patent-pending vision-to-geolocation technique, developed jointly by CyberLogitec and GlobeAI, converts each detection into real-world coordinates. These are combined with RTK positions from straddle carriers, so the distance between any worker and any machine can be calculated in real time. The system locates people without identifying them.

To avoid nuisance alarms, the system applies lane-aware logic, evaluating distance only when a carrier and a worker share the same working lane. Alerts are tiered at 15, 10 and 5 metres and shown to drivers as directional bars on the in-cab display. In field validation, equipment positioning was accurate to under 3 centimetres and worker localisation to under 20 centimetres.

“Under an STS crane, a colleague working safely in the next lane is often only a few metres away,” said Dr Junhee Cho, Digital Team Leader at CyberLogitec, who led development. “If alarms sound all shift for no reason, drivers switch the system off. The measure of a safety system is not how much it catches, but whether people keep trusting it.”

Worker detection uses GlobeAI’s deep-learning vision, trained on port imagery to perform in clutter, low light, fog and rain. Equipment positioning uses LG Uplus’s RTK network, which draws on more than 200 reference stations across Korea to overcome signal interference from steel container stacks. RTK receivers are fitted to around 70 mobile units, and 28 AI cameras are installed on 14 STS cranes.

In the control room, a 3D Virtual Terminal allows operators to monitor the site, replay past events to investigate near-misses and maintain an auditable alert history. The platform is integrated with the OPUS Terminal operating system and can be extended to terminal tractors and other mobile equipment.

“The hard part was locating a worker who carries no device, against the same reference as a machine moving with centimetre precision,” said Hans Moh, Senior Vice President and Head of CyberLogitec’s Port Solution Group. “How many boxes a terminal moves in a day matters less than whether everyone goes home safely.”

“Safety is never open to compromise and remains our highest priority,” said Chris Choi, CEO and Representative Director of BNCT. “Through our collaboration with CyberLogitec, we have further strengthened our prevention-focused approach to safety management. We will continue to proactively manage operational risks and provide a safer working environment for everyone working at the terminal.”

CyberLogitec plans to extend the solution to other ports in Korea and overseas.

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SOURCE CyberLogitec

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Bringin Introduces Euro Business Accounts for Companies Adopting Bitcoin, Without Taking Custody of Their Bitcoin

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Buying Bitcoin is not the hard part. Running a company on it is.

TALLINN, Estonia, Oct. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Bringin today opened an invite-only beta of euro business accounts that let companies hold, accept and pay in Bitcoin and stablecoins, keep owner control of their coins, and run SEPA payments from a vIBAN in the company’s own name. The launch builds on Bringin’s consumer platform, which has processed more than €15 million.

More European businesses want what Bitcoin and stablecoins offer: instant settlement, global reach and lower costs. But running a company on Bitcoin is another matter: Many face bank account restrictions and blocked transfers. Every conversion to euros adds friction, records sit across disconnected tools, and Travel Rule requirements turn simple payments into paperwork. Bitcoin’s potential as money stays largely untapped.

Bringin for Business bridges Bitcoin and banking. Companies can add Bitcoin to their treasury, accept Bitcoin, Lightning or stablecoin payments, and pay suppliers and payroll in Bitcoin. Euro accounts and the company’s Bitcoin wallet sit together, with the governance and security a business needs. A dedicated virtual IBAN, in the company’s own name, connects it to SEPA payments, with additional global payment rails planned.

Private keys for each company’s Bitcoin are generated inside a hardware-isolated secure enclave. Bringin never has access to the raw key. A key can be used to sign a payment only inside the enclave, and only after a designated company owner authenticates.

Banking, payments, self-custody and exchange all run in one place, with integrations for accounting and tax reporting tools, and APIs to automate routine work with AI agents.

“Companies that use Bitcoin still struggle to get a euro account and move seamlessly between them,” said Prashanth Chandrashekar, founder and CEO of Bringin. “We built Bringin to solve that, now companies can get paid, hold value and move money globally, with accounts designed around self-custody and a smooth payment experience.”

Built on the MiCA-authorized infrastructure of Lightspark Payments Europe AS, Bringin for Business is already used by 15 businesses in the beta, including Lightning payment tools, mining-rig sellers and Bitcoin conferences, handling cross-border payments and instant Bitcoin-to-euro conversions. It is available to companies across 30 European countries.

Businesses ready to earn, hold and pay in Bitcoin can request an invite at bringin.app/business.

About Bringin:

Bringin is a Tallinn-based fintech bridging Bitcoin and euro banking. Its consumer app combines a self-custodial Bitcoin wallet, euro vIBAN and debit cards. Bringin for Business extends the same infrastructure to companies using Bitcoin for treasury and payments. Learn more at bringin.app.

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