Rewarding transparency

Billed as a tool in making business run better in the 21st century, sustainability reporting spurs organisations to measure, monitor and report on their actions and impacts on stakeholders.

As a means of being more transparent and accountable in economic, social and environmental spheres, sustainability reporting is a more holistic improvement on the long practised environmental reporting practices which began life in the 1980s with publications mooted by chemical industries.

Sustainability Reporting, in its more modern sense, now encompasses GRI guidelines, which, spearheaded by ACCA around the world, encourages both public and private sector organisations to report on their systems, processes and initiatives on the three sustainable development platforms, with more transparency and accountability.

The ACCA Sri Lanka Sustainability Reporting Awards takes place on 14 February at the Cinnamon Grand under the aegis of Chief Guest Diarietou Gaye, Country Director for Sri Lanka and the Maldives of the World Bank and Guest of Honour, Lucia Real-Martin, Director for Emerging Markets – Asia. Firmly embedding the tenets of transparency and accountability into the reporting process prevalent within the corporate and public sectors of Sri Lanka, ACCA has for the last seven years steadily rewarded transparency, based on the GRI guidelines and triple bottom line reporting.

In addition to conferring the prestigious awards on companies who have conformed to these reporting guidelines in the small, medium and large sectors, ACCA also rewards runners up worthy of commendation as well as honours first time entrants with a special award.

Last year, John Keells Holdings won in the large category, while HNB emerged as the First Runner Up and Sampath Bank gained a commendation. In the medium category, Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings and DIMO were adjudged Joint Winners, with People’s Leasing Company obta-ining a commendation. HDFC Bank, the winner in the small scale category was also presented the winning award in the First Time Entrant category, while HNB Assurance became Runners Up in the small sector.  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.

Comprehensi-veness, credibility and communication, identifying and rewarding innovative attempts to communicate corporate performance, are all aligned to the sustainability concept in order to reward the most transparent and accountable entities.

ACCA Sri Lanka President Nisreen Rehmanjee commends the awards, stating: “In recognising the need for full integration of sustainability principles within an organisation’s business strategy, the ACCA Sri Lanka Sustainability Reporting Awards rewards transparency in this reporting process. The criteria are globally benchmarked and with this, ACCA remains extremely committed to ensuring that stakeholders become partners to the organisations’ success. In the macro vista, sustainability reporting is also in the best interest of our country and in giving direction to our future generations as it ingratiates a holistic approach to sustainability rather than a piecemeal approach based on singular or individual initiatives.”