Winners of ACCA Lanka Sustainability Reporting Awards

Four companies won the prestigious ACCA Sri Lanka Sustainability Reporting Awards 2007, at a ceremony presided over by Minister of Export Development and International Trade, Prof. G. L. Peiris. Holcim Lanka won in the large-scale category while Union Assurance emerged the winner in the medium-scale category.

Two commendation awards were presented to Ceylon Tobacco Company for its continuous and consistent focus on sustainability and Sampath Bank for innovative projects clearly integrating sustainability principles.

Minister Peiris, while commending ACCA Sri Lanka for introducing the tangibility of recording and reporting sustainable initiatives in a systematic process, said that the business community plays an integral role in responsible growth on all three fronts of economic, environmental and social sustainability to meet a nation’s long term objectives.

“Sustainable development and responsible action need to be a public-private sector partnership at the highest level with goals, values and objectives. It is the business community that has to play a key role in ensuring that sustainable development takes place responsibly, transparently and ethically,” he said.

President of ACCA Sri Lanka Dilshan Rodrigo said that, “Environmental issues have taken over as the number one priority in sustainability reporting overtaking corporate social responsibility and ethical reporting, the key issues of the past.

ACCA’s globally recognised Sustainability Awards was launched with the vision of making Triple Bottom Line reporting an imperative, where environment, social and financial reporting, are given equal prominence by business around the world.

We are proud of pioneering Sustainability Reporting in Sri Lanka four years ago. Sri Lankan companies have certainly come a long way in the quality and depth of Sustainability Reporting, he said.