Commercial Bank wins ACCA Best Sustainability Reporting Award

 Overall winner at the ACCA Sri Lanka Sustainability Reporting Awards 2021 – Commercial Bank of Ceylon and Runner-Up Dialog Axiata. From left:  ComBank MD/Group CEO S. Renganathan, ACCA Member Network Panel Chairman Sri Lanka Nandika Buddhipala, ComBank Chairman Justice K. Sripavan, Chief Guest UNDP Sri Lanka SDG Integration Specialist Dulani Sirisena, Dialog Axiata Group General Counsel/VP Trinesh Fernando, and ACCA South Asia Cluster Head Nilusha Ranasinghe

• Dialog Axiata first runner-up; 15 awards presented across seven industry categories for 2021

 

Commercial Bank of Ceylon came up trumps in the sustainability stakes when it won the overall award for the Best Sustainability Report 2021, while Dialog Axiata was adjudged overall first runner up at the CCA Sustainability Reporting Awards 2021 held 

last night.

Commercial Bank also topped the Banking category in which Seylan Bank and National Development Bank (NDB) were joint runners-up. Dialog Axiata won the General Services Category. 

Hayleys and John Keells Holdings were the winner and runner up respectively in the Conglomerates and Diversified category, while Alliance Finance won the Financial Services and Insurance category with the runner up being Citizens Development Business Finance. 

Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings won the Leisure and Connected Services category, Talawakelle Tea Estates and Dilmah Ceylon Tea Company were the winner and runner up respectively in the Retail and Trading category and Oxford College of Business won the SME category with Resus Energy emerging runner-up.

With these awards, ACCA Sri Lanka has since 2004, striven to improve imperatives in sustainability reporting, giving credence to an organisation’s sustainability practices with recognition of the strong link between business strategy, corporate governance and sustainability. 

Worldwide, over 3,000 entities in 25 countries use a predetermined reporting methodology within Global Reporting Initiative guidelines. Companies across multiple sectors submitted reports for judging by an eminent panel of sustainability specialists – Sriyani Hulugalle, Ramani Gunatilaka, Dr Kennedy Gunawardana and Dinesh Weerakkody led by Franklyn Amerasinghe. 

The Chief Guest was SDG Integration Specialist from the UNDP Sri Lanka Dulani Sirisena, a development practitioner with over 18 years’ experience and is currently the UNDP’s senior technical advisor on SDGs. 

Congratulating the winners and ACCA for continuous commitment to support sustainable growth through improved corporate reporting, Sirisena said: “Sustainability reporting is seen as an enabler of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). At a time when the world faces a global health and socio-economic crisis of an unforeseen magnitude, the SDGs remain more relevant than ever. We are at a critical juncture that requires an integrated, whole-of-society approach to not only accelerate progress towards the goals but prevent rapid deceleration.”

ACCA Sri Lanka Member Network Panel President Nandika Buddhipala said that the increasing emphasis on meaningful efforts towards arresting climate change has brought in numerous stakeholders around the world on the common platform of building a better planet.

“The current move towards financial capital is increasingly drawn to businesses that are trusted, ethical and environmentally friendly together with their ability to create long-term value for society. This further strengthens the importance of comprehensive disclosures in the sustainability reports of business organisations.”