MAS Shines at Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability Awards 2024

In an affirmation of the organisation’s ongoing commitment to sustainability, MAS Holdings was recognised for several initiatives carried out by business units MAS Kreeda, Bodyline, MAS Capital, and MAS Innovations (Twinery), at the Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability Awards 2024, organised by The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.

MAS Kreeda was recognised for its efforts to uphold positive employee relations, creating an inclusive, fair and safe workplace in which its people can thrive. These efforts earned the team the evening’s ‘Triple Bottom Line’ award in the ‘People’ category, and the award for best performance in the ‘Employee Relations’ category. 

MAS Kreeda’s comprehensive work on product and service responsibility, responsible marketing, and future-focused strategies also helped secure victory in the ‘Customer Relations’ category for the second year in a row, closing out its third award for the night. 

Meanwhile, MAS business units also had a strong showing in the Best Sustainability Projects category, receiving multiple nods of recognition for programmes across the business. Bodyline emerged a winner in the category for its biodiversity conservation project, ‘Releaf Knuckles’, while also receiving merit recognitions for its reverse osmosis water purification initiative ‘Water for All’, and Braille label maker project, ‘Touch of Hope’.

MAS Capital and MAS Innovations (Twinery) also received a merit recognition in the Best Sustainability Projects category for the Girls in STEM initiative aimed to empower young female students to explore careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Planning for Change

The recognition received by MAS continues to acknowledge the company’s sustainability strategy, the MAS Plan for Change, which was launched in 2020 and includes ambitions and KPIs towards 2025. This strategy is the culmination of decades of work in empowering women and men in its workforce, reducing the company’s environmental footprint, and leveraging on innovation and technological advances to make products that are better for both the consumer and the planet that we live in. 

MAS has long since believed in continuous improvement of its processes and practices. While the foundational belief of doing the right thing has influenced the way that the company has done business throughout the years, the practice of formal sustainability KPIs commenced over 15 years ago, when sustainability was highlighted as a key priority in the company strategy. 

The evolution of sustainability strategies is the result of this push for continuously improving its efforts to deliver the best impact and influence on its stakeholders and the world. The MAS Plan for Change now focuses on the pillars of Product, Lives and Planet, aligning teams across the business to focus on a singular set of goals to achieve the greatest collective impact. 

Over the last four years, this strategy has been the framework on which the company has built its commitment to inspire sustainable change within its business, amongst customers, people, communities, and within the planet at large. 

People First

As an organisation that has believed in doing the right thing since its inception, MAS continues to focus on its employees, ensuring that the company supports a thriving and engaged workforce. Through the ‘Lives Changed for Good’ pillar in the MAS Plan for Change, the company focuses its efforts on ensuring diversity and inclusion for all, and creating meaningful employment opportunities by accelerating employee well-being, ensuring equitable reward and recognition, while also enabling best-in-class working conditions at all facilities across Sri Lanka and the globe.

With focused initiatives aimed at attracting, strengthening and retaining the right kind of talent for the organisation, MAS Kreeda continues to ensure that critical talent is available to meet its business needs as well as those of its customers. Specially tailored programmes address the training, development, and career advancement needs of the employees, along with initiatives that continue to empower the majority female employees, integrate persons with disabilities into its workforce, and create inclusive work environments within its business. 

Black swan events such as the Sri Lankan economic crisis saw the company adopting employee-centric approaches to safeguard livelihoods and ensure business continuity. Through such efforts MAS Kreeda continues to adhere to the highest level of compliance and alignment that is required by the global standards set forth by its customers.

Responsibility to Customers 

MAS believes that as an ethical manufacturer, products are at the heart of the value it delivers to its customers. This is the company’s motivation to design and develop products that are good for the wearer, good for the planet, and good for business. 

The MAS Plan for Change goal of generating 50% of its apparel revenue through sustainable products by 2025 has led strategic business unit MAS Kreeda to work closely with its customers to understand the needs of their consumers and create sustainable product solutions in response. The team at MAS Kreeda explores innovative strategies that are focused on creating long-lasting, recyclable products, while also extending the lifespan of non-biodegradable materials by giving them a second life as apparel. 

The team also believes in its responsibility in providing its customers with a trusted partner that they can depend on as a sustainable and ethical manufacturer. These efforts involve driving robust processes to improve sustainability performance within manufacturing plants that align with both MAS strategy as well as the customers’ established goals and targets. Monthly reports on environmental, social, and compliance performance creates accountability, and helps track progress, while check and adjusting on areas that require more focus.  

Projects that Power Change

With a strong sense of responsibility to the communities and the environment that the company exists in, MAS depends on its Community Engagement Model to execute impactful initiatives that align closely with its Plan for Change pillars.

Bodyline’s ‘ReLeaf Knuckles’ initiative is one such example. In collaboration with the Community Development Center in Attapitiya, Bodyline launched the Knuckles Reforestation Project in the Kandy district. The project aimed to restore 25 hectares of land in the Knuckles Conservation Forest by planting 20,000 utility trees, including fruit crops, medicinal crops, forest and economic plants. Focused on the villages of Garandigala and Moonamal Palassa, this initiative addresses prevalent environmental challenges such as deforestation, soil erosion, and biodiversity loss. By strategically planting in buffer zones, this effort increases forest cover, combats erosion, and strengthens local ecosystems, ensuring long-term environmental sustainability while also benefiting surrounding communities with sustainable resources.

Bodyline also showcased its commitment to sustainable community development through its ‘Water for All’ reverse osmosis water purification plant installation initiative in areas such as the Trincomalee and Gampaha districts, where the water is characterised as ‘hard water’. One example of success of this project was in Kuchchaveli, where the newly installed system successfully reduced water hardness from 1500 mg/L to 50 mg/L, benefiting 600 villagers. Similarly, at Walpola Vidyalaya, 450 students and local residents now have access to purified water, while Parakum Maha Vidyalaya’s reverse osmosis system improved water quality for 650 students. The project was also expanded to India, where reverse osmosis plants collectively benefitted over 1,880 people.

 Bodyline’s final recognition at the Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability Awards was for its focus on sustainable education and nurturing the next generation of sustainability leaders through its ‘Touch of Hope’ initiative. This project focused on strengthening a student project taken on through the Eco Go Beyond sustainable schools programme. Bodyline supported the efforts of Kusal Sachintha Aluthge, a Grade 9 student from Uduwa Kanishta Vidyalaya with his visionary project aimed at supporting persons with disabilities. Teams at Bodyline supported Kusal with the innovation of a device that prints Braille labels for the visually impaired, ultimately reaching 200,000 visually impaired individuals while also donating 20 devices to 10 key organisations, with the support of partners such as the Ratmalana Blind School, the Employee’s Federation of Ceylon, and the Sri Lanka Visually Handicapped Association.

Another example of MAS’ commitment to sustainable education comes in the form of the Girls in STEM initiative, conducted by MAS Capital and MAS’ innovation arm, Twinery. The programme equips girls with essential skills, inspiring them to pursue higher education and careers in STEM fields, offering hands-on learning experiences, access to role models, and confidence-building activities to dismantle gender stereotypes in STEM. The yearlong initiative emphasises innovation and emerging technologies like FemTech, AI, digital product creation, and wearable technology. The students also engage in ‘giveback programmes’ where they share their newfound knowledge with their school communities. 

While receiving these recognitions, MAS acknowledges and celebrates the tireless dedication of its teams, while integrating the learnings of its ongoing efforts, to navigate the next steps of its journey towards building a responsible and ethical apparel industry, and a sustainable world for all.