Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC won the coveted ‘Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability Award 2021’ at an annual event organized by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, the country’s premier business chamber, to recognize sustainable champions of the local corporate world.
Citizens Development Business Finance PLC and CBL Investments Limited (CBL Group) were adjudged the first and second runners-up of the competition, respectively.
Dilmah Ceylon Tea Company PLC walked away with the Category B ‘Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability Award 2021’, awarded to companies with an annual turnover below Rs. 15 Billion, while BPPL Holdings PLC and Oxford College of Business (Private) Limited were awarded as first and second runners-up respectively, in this category.
Top Ten Corporate Citizens
This Award recognises the ten most sustainable corporates which have implemented outstanding sustainability initiatives under both ‘Category A & B’. This year, the Top Ten awards include a joint winner, bringing the total number of winners to 11. Aitken Spence PLC, CBL Investments Limited (CBL Group), Citizens Development Business Finance PLC, Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC, Dialog Axiata PLC, Dilmah Ceylon Tea Company PLC, Hatton National Bank PLC, National Development Bank PLC, Nestlé Lanka PLC, Sampath Bank PLC and Sri Lanka Telecom PLC were recognised as the Top Ten Corporate Citizens of 2021.
Triple Bottom-line Awards
Awarded to companies with the best performance in the three sustainability pillars of Planet (Environmental Sustainability), People (Social Sustainability) and Profit (Economic Sustainability), Nestle Lanka PLC won the Award for Environmental Sustainability, while Aitken Spence PLC and Dipped Products PLS were awarded the Social Sustainability and Economic Sustainability Awards respectively.
Category Awards
Nestlé Lanka PLC, won the Corporate Environmental Commitment Award for its corporate policies and business practices towards Environment and Social sustainability priority and the assignment of suitable individuals to manage and sustain such policies and practices, as well as the Environment Beyond Business Award for going the extra mile to safeguard the environment and ensure a cleaner and greener future together with relevant communities.
Dilmah Ceylon Tea Company PLC, won the Environmental Integration Award for its endeavors to reduce the environmental footprint via corporate decisions and the introduction of innovative technology to maintain environmental sustainability within the business, as well as the Customer Relations for continuing to set the benchmark for adopting engaging and strategic approaches to working with all stakeholders to achieve end goals.
Aitken Spence PLC and Citizens Development Business Finance PLC were joint winners of the Employee Relations Award, for maintaining sustainable standards towards employees in all aspects and demonstrating engagement in their sustainability practices
Aitken Spence PLC, won the Community Relations Award for steps taken to highlight that corporate community relations activities are the Golden Key to the success of Corporate Social Responsibility.
Sampath Bank PLC, won the Governance Award for displaying high standards of governance in the structure and composition of their Board and Board Committees, their practices to ensure ethical behavior and their reporting to shareholders.
Dipped Products PLC, won the Financial Performance award for admirable achievements of profitability and return to shareholders, with a prudent and sustainable view on financing and liquidity.
Dialog Axiata PLC, won the Economic Contribution award for facilitating job creation and transformation of remote regions of the country, supporting economic and social development through rural credit and SME and micro-finance programmes designed to advance rural economies.
Sector Based Sustainability Champions
The Sector Awards recognise the best sustainability performance in sectors that each corporate represents. The Awards were won by Kelani Valley Plantations PLC in the Agriculture Sector, Access Engineering in the Construction Sector, Aitken Spence PLC in Diversified Holdings, Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC in the Finance Sector, Dialog Axiata PLC in the Knowledge Services Sector, CBL Investments Limited (CBL Group) in the Manufacturing sector, while Sri Lanka Telecom PLC won an award under the ‘Other’ category.
Consistent Commitment and Continuous Improvement
Category Awards for consistent commitment and demonstrated improvement, awarded to corporates that participated in The Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability Award process for a minimum of three of the last five years. Aitken Spence PLC won the majority of the Consistent Commitment and Continuous Improvement certificates including those for Environmental Commitment, Environmental Integration, Environment Beyond the Business, Employee Relations, Customer Relations and Community Relations. The Governance certificate was awarded to Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC, the Financial Performance certificate was awarded to Sirio Ltd. and the Economic Contribution certificate was awarded to Bank of Ceylon.
Award for Demonstrated Resilient Practices for COVID-19 Context
Dilmah Ceylon Tea Company PLC and Hatton National Bank PLC were joint winners under the newly introduced award on Demonstrated Resilient Practices for COVID-19 Context Award while Citizens Development Business Finance PLC, Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC, Sri Lanka Telecom PLC were the second runners-up.
Best Projects Sustainability Awards 2021
‘Best Projects Sustainability Awards’ recognise and encourage the efforts of the private/public sector to engage in specific projects relating to key aspects of sustainability including economic, environment, governance and social issues relevant to the organization and in response to contextual needs.
Eight Projects have been recognized for Best Projects Sustainability Awards this year. Accordingly, CBL Natural Foods (Pvt) Limited was awarded for its project on Sustainable Sourcing of Pineapple in partnership with the Agriculture Sector Modernization Project, Elpitiya Plantations PLC for its Go Green and Beyond project, Hirdaramani Knit Mihila (CKT Apparel) Pvt Limited for Gender Inclusive Responsible Workplace – a participatory approach to deploying a Gender Inclusive Policy, MAS Holdings (Pvt) Ltd for MAS Ocean Strainer, Merrill J. Fernando Charitable Foundation (MJFCF) for its project on disABILITY – Supporting Children with Disabilities (CWDs) and their families across Sri Lanka, Plenty Foods (Pvt) Limited for CBL-ILO partnership project to drive inclusive agricultural livelihood development in the Northern Province, Taprobane Seafoods (Pvt) Ltd for The Sri Lankan Blue Swimming Crab (SLBSC) fishery improvement project (FIP) and Western Power Company (Pvt) Ltd for A Sustainable Solution to Solve Sri Lanka’s Waste Problem: The success story of Sri Lanka’s First Waste to Energy Power Plant Project, ‘10MW Colombo Waste to Energy Power Plant’.
Merit Certificates
‘Merit Certificates’ were awarded to Sustainability Projects that require enhancements in performance in order to be considered Best Sustainability Projects and were awarded to the following companies: Cargills Ceylon PLC for Climate-Smart Agri Modernization Programme (a sub-project under the Cargills Sarubima initiative), Hayleys Fabric PLC for an eco-friendly method of fabric dyeing using natural dye extracted from Mahogany bark (Swietenia macrophylla), Premium Exports Ceylon (Private) Limited – Unilever Sri Lanka for Re-purposing of Black Tea Waste (Broken Mixed Fannings), Sampath Bank PLC for ‘Wewata Jeewayak’ and Unilever Sri Lanka Limited for Purpose, Wellbeing & Youth: Empowering people with purpose to thrive.
Best Presented Application
CBL Investments Limited (CBL Group) and Citizens Development Business Finance PLC were joint winners of this Award.
