Be the best corporate citizen 2012!

Once again on November 12, 2012, the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) will recognise the Best Corporate Citizen Award for this year. The applications for this prestigious award were opened in late July and the deadline will be 14 September.  

From left: CSR Awards Committee Chairman Prof. Lakshman Watawala, MAS intimates (Pvt.) Ltd. Dinal Peiris (first runner up), The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Chairman Susantha Ratnayake, Nestlé Lanka PLC Alois Hofbauer (winner), HNB PLC Chandula Abeywickrema (second runner up) and The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Secretary General/CEO Harin Malwatte

Commenced in 2004 as an award scheme to recognise Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) long before it became a buzz word, over the years the award has grown adding a number of new categories, and promoting CSR activities and sustainable business practices amongst local businesses. The award has become a mark of quality for the noteworthy work carried by local businesses as it is awarded by the premier business chamber of the country, the CCC.

The applications are called for the Best Corporate Citizen Award as well as for the Best CSR projects category, thus providing due recognition to both overall work that companies do and also for individual projects that are making noteworthy contributions to the society. For the main award – the Best Corporate Citizen Award applications are called from both public and private incorporated bodies and in order to provide a level playing field for both large and medium organisations the categories are divided into above Rs. 15 billion turn over category and below Rs. 15 billion turn over category.

The applications are evaluated on the areas of environment, employee relations, customer and supplier relations, community relations and CSR, economic contribution, financial performance, governance and reporting. Category awards will also be awarded to organisations that excel in these particular areas. One of the main reasons for the prestige attached to the award is its transparent and stringent selection criteria. The award has an established evaluation process that is carried out by an independent evaluation panel comprising of experts in the relevant fields. In evaluating the applications, all questions addressed in the application will be considered for the Best Corporate Citizen Award. A pre determined marking scheme will carry positive and negative marks under each area. A weight of 20% for Environment, 50% for Social: People and CSR (comprising of employees, customers, suppliers and community and CSR) and 30% for economic contribution and governance will be assigned in arriving at the final scores.  

The short listed applicants will be called for an interview with the panel of evaluators for clarifications. Thereafter, consequent to further short listing applicants will be called upon to make a brief presentation and face an interview with the panel of judges which will also carry marks. Usually the CEO and the CR Manager represent the company at the final interview.

In 2011 Nestlé Lanka PLC was adjudged as the Best Corporate Citizen, while MAS intimates (Pvt.) Ltd was the first runner up and Hatton National Bank PLC was the second runner up. In the below Rs. 15 billion turnover category, the winner was Link Natural Products (Pvt.) Limited while Colombo Dockyard PLC bagged the first runner up position and National Development Bank PLC was the second runner up.

The ten best corporate citizens were Aitken Spence PLC, Aviva NDB Insurance PLC, Ceylon Biscuits Limited, Colombo Dockyard PLC, Hatton National Bank PLC, Link Natural Products (Pvt.) Limited, MAS Intimates (Pvt.) Ltd, Nestlé Lanka PLC, Singer (Sri Lanka) PLC and The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd (HSBC).

Winners of the Special Projects category in 2011 with the Chief Guest Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka at last year’s event

The category awards were won by MAS Intimates (Pvt.) Ltd for Environment, The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd (HSBC) for Community Relations and CSR, Nestlé Lanka PLC for both Employee Relations and Customer and Supplier Relations and Hatton National Bank PLC for Governance and Economic Contribution.

Several special CSR projects carried out by a number of organisations were also given recognition at the ceremony. Those included the ‘Gamata Sarana’ project of Ceylon Biscuit Limited which worked on providing drinking  water, building  roads and bridges, setting up libraries and labs in deserving  schools and villages in rural areas, Conservation and enrichment of  Halgolle Nature Reserve carried out by Kelani Valley PLC, Linea Aqua’s project on rejuvenating the eco system at Bundala National Park, Integrated  action programme in selected schools to create an enabling environment for education by Link Natural Products (Pvt.) Limited, Metropolitan’s E- waste management project, DIMO’s  Sinahawa Scholarship Programme, Bio mass gasifier project of Heatherset Hotels Ltd., Holcim  Lanka’s project on Masonary Training as a skill development initiative for youth, National Development Bank’s project providing tool kits for 250 IDPs who successfully completed the training programmes conducted by Vocational Training Authority (VTA), Nestlé Lanka PLC’s Dairy Development project and the project providing eye – care services for the deprived and marginalised individuals in 20 cities carried out by Standard Chartered Bank.   

The past winners of the award include a number of blue chip companies of Sri Lanka which have adopted the 3Ps approach (People, Planet and Profits) towards their workings and have included a number of noteworthy efforts of organisations such as Hayleys PLC, People’s leasing Co. Ltd, CIC Agri Businesses (Pvt.) Ltd, DFCC Bank, Microsoft Sri Lanka, Bam Holdings Ltd, Sampath Bank PLC , Singer (Sri Lanka) PLC, Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC, Cargills (Ceylon) PLC, Brandix Lanka Limited and E Fusion (Pvt.) Ltd.