Ceylon Biscuits wins ‘Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability Award 2020’ for the first time

Ceylon Biscuits Ltd. won the coveted ‘Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability Award 2020’, an annual event organised by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, the country’s premier business chamber to recognise sustainable champions of the local corporate world, while Aitken Spence PLC and Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC respectively became the first and second runners-up of the competition.

Dilmah Ceylon Tea Company PLC won the Less than Rs. 15 Billion Annual Turnover ‘Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability Award 2020’ under ‘Category B’.

While congratulating all the winners on their achievements, the Ceylon Chamber intends to organise the Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability Awards Ceremony 2020 in due course.

Top 10 Corporate Citizens

The 10 best sustainable corporates that have performed with outstanding sustainability initiatives under both ‘Category A and B’ are recognised with these awards. Aitken Spence, Bank of Ceylon, Ceylon Biscuits, Citizens Development Business Finance, Commercial Bank of Ceylon, Dilmah Ceylon Tea Company, Hatton National Bank, National Development Bank, Nestlé Lanka and Sri Lanka Telecom were recognised as the top 10 corporate citizens of 2020.

Triple Bottom Line Awards

These awards recognises the corporates who have performed best in the three sustainability pillars; Planet (Environmental Sustainability), People (Social Sustainability) and Profit (Economic Sustainability). Accordingly, Aitken Spence won two Triple Bottom Line Awards for its effort on Environmental Sustainability and Social Sustainability, while Bank of Ceylon was awarded for its actions on Economic Sustainability.

Category Awards

Under Category Awards, Aitken Spence won the Award for Environmental Integration for its corporate policies and business practices towards the environment and social sustainability as well as the award for environmental commitment for the priority and assignment of suitable individuals to manage and sustain such policies and practices. 

Dilmah Ceylon Tea Company won the Award for Environment Beyond the Business, for being responsible to go an extra mile to safeguard the environment and ensure a cleaner and greener future with the engagement of related community parties and another Award for Customer Relations for the continuation to set the benchmark for working with all its stakeholders as key partners to achieve its end goals in an engaging and strategic manner. 

Bank of Ceylon won two category awards namely Employee Relations Award for maintaining sustainable standards towards its employees in all aspects and showing employee engagement in their sustainability practices and also an Award for Financial Performance for admirable achievements of profitability and return to shareholders, with a prudent and sustainable view on financing and liquidity. 

Nestlé Lanka was awarded for Community Relations for necessary actions taken to make corporate community relations activities the golden key to the Success of Corporate Social Responsibility. 

Commercial Bank of Ceylon was awarded for Governance for displaying high standards of governance in the structure and composition of their Board and Board Committees, their practices to ensure ethical behaviour and their reporting to shareholders. 

The award for Economic Contribution was won by Sri Lanka Telecom 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 programs designed to advance rural economies.

Sector Based Sustainability Champions

The sector awards recognise the best sustainability performance in sectors that each corporate represents. These awards were won by Access Engineering for the Construction Sector, Commercial Bank of Ceylon for Finance Sector, Ceylon Biscuits for Manufacturing sector, Aitken Spence for Diversified Holdings while Sri Lanka Telecom won a ‘Sector ‘award under the ‘Other’ category.

Consistent Commitment and Continuous Improvement

Category Awards for consistent commitment and demonstrated improvement, selected from corporates that participated in The Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability Award process at least three years during the last five years. 

Aitken Spence won most of the Consistent Commitment and Continuous Improvement certificates such as Environmental Commitment, Environmental Integration, Environment Beyond the Business, Employee Relations and Customer Relations.  

Community Relations certificate was awarded to People’s Leasing and Finance, Governance certificate was awarded to National Development Bank, Financial Performance certificate was awarded to Sirio Ltd. and Economic Contribution certificate was awarded to Hatton National Bank.

Best Sustainability Project Awards 2020

‘Best Projects Sustainability Awards’ are an attempt to recognise and encourage the efforts of the private/public sector to engage in specific projects relating to the key aspects of sustainability that include economic, environment, governance and social issues material to the organisation and in response to contextual needs. 

This year, four projects have been recognised for Best Projects Sustainability Awards. Accordingly, Coca-Cola Beverages Sri Lanka Ltd. was awarded for its project on ‘Water for Life’, Mas Intimates Ltd. for the contribution it made via ‘The MAS Mangroves’, Unilever Sri Lanka was awarded for its project on 100% Aqua while HJS Condiments Ltd. was awarded for its project on ‘Positioning of flavoured Jackfruit in ready-to-eat form in the international market as a substitute for meat’ Project.

Merit Certificates

Unilever Sri Lanka was awarded a merit certificate for its three projects, namely, ‘Horana Manufacturing project’, ‘Project Udara’ and ‘Project Saubagya’. Hatton National Bank was awarded a certificate for its project on ‘Cancer Counselling Centre at Apeksha Hospital, Maharagama’, The Rainforest Ecolodge Ltd. won a merit certificate for its project, while EE Ecocycle Lanka Ltd. was recognised for ‘Establishment of INSEE Ecocycle Resource Recovery Center (RRC)’.

Best Presented Application

The award for the Best Presented Application was won by Nestle Lanka.