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| Sunday, 9 May 2004 |
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Sustainable development the way forward -regional expert The Corporate sector of Sri Lanka had taken the leadership in many spheres and I challenge them to take the lead in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as well, said Senior Environmental Engineer, Environment and Social Development Unit South Asia Region The World Bank Dr Sumith Pilapitiya. He made these remarks at the centenary celebrations of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants held last week, speaking on the theme "CSR is there a business case for Sri Lanka?". CSR is the integration of environmental and social concerns to an organisations operations, is a voluntary exercise which costs a little more initially. For a country like Sri Lanka conserving everything does not solve the problem while we cannot enjoy the other extreme of polluting now and cleaning later as it is a very costly exercise. Therefore sustainable development, development that gives due consideration to economic, environmental and social issues is the only solution. He said that prawn farms in the North Western province and the Human Elephant conflict in Pelawatte are two good examples of unsustainable development in Sri Lanka. If prawn farms were planned properly we would have still been at the boom stage and not the bust stage or the recovery stage. " We can implement any project as long as it is sustainable, and also when compensating people the Government should pay the replacement value and not the depreciated value given by the Government valuer," opined Dr Pilapitiya. He questioned the audience as to whether we are a socially responsible society. We are when it comes to keeping our environment clean. Historically we have been socially responsible. Even when poor villagers plucked the mangoes from their trees they keep some for the birds and squirrels. But with the open economy being misinterpreted to that of profit at any cost mentality, society as a whole has become less responsible, though we are responsible as individuals. To spread it to the corporate sector we need to have an attitude change. The western markets would start demanding ISO 14000 certification and as Sri Lanka is an export oriented economy, they would have to conform to these standards, opined Pilapitiya. Corporate sector of the country is expected to play a pivotal role in economic development and the election manifestos of the main parties at the recent elctions had a significant role for the corporate sector and the Alliance partner JVP would expect the corporate sector to have a greater accountability give a voice to stakeholders and ensure good governance. At present most corporates employ workers from the local community and any adverse impacts from the organisation would impact the community, which in turn affects the workers and their productivity. Therefore investing in the community would result in a better corporate reputation which is increasingly looked upon by the marketplace. CSR is not for charitable reasons, but for enlightened self interest that benefits society as well, concluded Dr Pilapitiya.(SG) |
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