Chairman’s Address

Our Chief Guest- Mr. Gevorg Sargsyan - Country Manager for Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka, World Bank Group 

Chairperson of the Panel of Evaluators - Rathika de Silva - Executive Director, UN Global Compact Network Sri Lanka

Chairperson of Panel of Judges- Mr. Christian Skoog – UNICEF Representative for Sri Lanka and Fellow Members of the Board, Past Chairman’s and Distinguished invitees Members of the panel of valuators and judges Representatives from award winning companies Ladies and gentlemen,

The Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability Awards 2024 organized by The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce is the 21st consecutive ceremony held to recognize corporate sustainability in Sri Lanka. 

I would like to extend a warm welcome to our Chief Guest for accepting our invitation to grace this occasion. This is a great opportunity for you to interact with the private sector and understand the sustainable business models of the private sector. We look forward to your address.  

I thank all the applicants for coming forward to showcase their unwavering sustainability initiatives through the past year. I welcome all company representatives who are attending the event this evening and congratulate them on their success. 

This year we are proud to have the highest number of applications of 94. Each year the number keeps rising and this signals the interest of the private sector for this prestigious award  

The principle idea behind the awards is to reward the business which are adhering to the highest practices in sustainability, looking at futuristic opportunities towards best practices, minimizing resource usage and their carbon footprint and adhering to the Sustainable Development Goals. The BCCS Awards are a focal point of the Chamber’s efforts to encourage corporate to focus on sustainability. To this end, we believe that leadership at the highest levels of companies is vital to spurring this change. 

There is a diverse set of categories recognized today focusing on the triple bottom line, category awards for best performance on sub-categories like environmental integration, employee relations, sectoral awards, awards for planning and adoption of resilient practices and category awards for consistent commitment and demonstrated improvement awards amongst others. There is also project awards to recognized specific projects relating to key aspects of sustainability.

The Chamber has broadened their efforts on sustainability this year and I would like to highlight a few of the key achievements:

• For the first time we hosted the Sri Lanka Climate Summit 2024 - Code Red - Climate Risks and Opportunities for Sri Lankan Businesses. This was a multi-stakeholder forum which produced actionable insights for the private sector to take forward. 
• The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce joined forces with the Global Alliance for a Sustainable Planet (GASP) to address pressing climate challenges and promote sustainable development on a global scale.
• The International Symposium on Sustainable Plastic Packaging as Food Contact Material discussed how science-driven policies are transforming food contact materials. Exploring innovations in plastic recycling, the Symposium brought together experts from diverse fields to address tackling the economic, environmental, and social impacts of plastic packaging. 
• The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and the Sri Lanka Banks’ Association (SLBA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to formalise and strengthen their ongoing partnership in promoting sustainable finance and financial inclusion in Sri Lanka. The two organisations through this partnership aim to engage in building both demand-side and supply-side capacity and connectivity on sustainable finance in advancing the Sustainable Finance Roadmap for Sri Lanka and the National Financial Inclusion Strategy. A key outcome aimed for through the MoU is to enable greater access for financing for Sri Lanka’s private sector, especially the export-oriented value chains and SME sector, to enable their sustainability transitions. 
• The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce together with The Sustainable Development Council of Sri Lanka and the Sri Lanka Banks’ Association Sustainable Banking Initiative, is working on establishing a National Blended Financing Facility to address market failures in high-impact sectors such as agriculture and food production.
• In 2021, to tackle the escalating issue of Sri Lanka’s plastic waste management, the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce has initiated the implementation of an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) model, which requires all stakeholders generating plastic waste to take responsibility for recycling and minimizing the use of plastic packaging. In 2024, private-sector led PET and HIPS consortia were established under the aegis of the Ceylon Chamber to support plastic-waste management in Sri Lanka. The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, in collaboration with Biodiversity Sri Lanka, organised the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Symposium titled ‘Advancing Environmental Responsibility through Innovation’.

I take this opportunity to thank the Panel of Evaluators and Panel of Judges headed by Rathika and Christian respectively who have immensely contributed with their valuable time and knowledge to make this event a success. Further, I also thank Azam Barkeer Marker, Development Coordination Officer, Partnerships & Development Finance, United Nations who led the Panel of Evaluators for Best Projects Sustainability Awards. They have taken time off from their busy schedules to go through the applications and select the winners, a difficult task indeed, with many worthy applicants vying for the top spots. I would also like to thank the Chamber team who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure the success of this event attending to all administrative matters relating to the selection process 

I would like to conclude by congratulating the winners of the day and wishing you all a pleasant evening!