ACCA Sustainability Reporting Awards on 24 February
Thursday, 19 February 2015 00:00
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Rewarding transparency, accountability and responsibility of action
Sri Lanka’s most transparent, accountable and responsible entities will be rewarded for the 11th year in succession, when ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) Sri Lanka hosts the ACCA Sustainability Reporting Awards on 24 February at the Cinnamon Grand.
With Deputy Minister of Highways, Higher Education and Investment Promotion Eran Wickramaratne as Chief Guest and Country Manager for Sri Lanka and the Maldives of IFC Adam Sack as Guest of Honour, this year’s awards spotlight seven categories in addition to rewarding an overall winner and runner-up.
The categories, namely Conglomerates and Diversified, Banking, Financial Services and Insurance, SME (turnover less than Rs. 1 billion), Retail and Trading, Leisure and Connected Services and General Services and Utilities is a new approach, moving away from the traditional classification of large, medium and small businesses.
Last year it was John Keells Holdings which emerged as the country’s most transparent and accountable business entity, bagging the accolade of Overall Winner, while Diesel and Motor Engineering Plc (DIMO) was adjudged Overall Runner-Up, in addition to seven category winners.
“Recognising the growing need for organisations to be responsive to their stakeholders, to be responsible and accountable for their impact on society and the environment, ACCA Sri Lanka pioneered the Sustainability Reporting Awards in 2004,” explains President Member Network Panel of ACCA Sri Lanka Danushka Samarasinghe.
“The aim is to steer Sri Lankan entities to be more attuned to the global nature of the world economy. This emphasis has raked in rewards and a definite positive development to stakeholder relations, with the comprehensiveness, credibility, quality and communication of the reports in Sri Lanka assessing and managing their sustainability impact more consistently within their supply chain.”
Sri Lankan companies join over 3,000 companies worldwide, including over two-thirds of the Fortune Global 500 in producing reports detailing sustainability and corporate responsibility. These companies follow the framework set out by the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative), in which ACCA has been involved in since its inception, having representation on the GRI Steering Committee, GRI Board, GRI Technical Advisory Committee and GRI Stakeholder Council. In fact, following the Rio+20 Conference, ACCA worked with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Coalition to promote and enhance sustainability reporting.
The ACCA Sustainability Reporting Awards are held in a number of countries including Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the UK and the USA with similar awards, largely based on the ACCA criteria, existing in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
