ACCA Sustainability Reporting Awards on 24 February

Wednesday, 16 February 2011 00:12 -     - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

With transparency and accountability now firmly embedded in the annals of sustainability reporting in Sri Lanka, ACCA is now preparing for the seventh ACCA Sustainability Reporting Awards to be held on 24 February at the Oak Room of the Cinnamon Grand.

The high profile event showcases the importance of sustainability reporting, building on the GRI guidelines and triple bottom line reporting.  The Chief Guest will be Co-Winner, 2007 Nobel Prize for Peace (Vice Chair, IPCC-AR4) and Professor of Sustainable Development, University of Manchester, UK who is also a Guest Professor at Peking University, Professor Mohan Munasinghe — the Chairman of the Munasinghe Institute for Development (MIND) Colombo.  Also attending as Guest of Honour will be ACCA global President, Mark Gold.

Every year, the prestigious awards are conferred on companies who have conformed to reporting guidelines in the small, medium and large sectors, in addition to companies who are worthy of runners up accolades.  Gaining these kudos as winners last year was HNB in the large category, DIMO in the medium category and HNB Assurance in the small category.  CTC and John Keells Holdings emerged Joint Runners up in the large category, while in the medium and small categories, Union Assurance and Chemanex came in as runners up respectively.  This year, ACCA plans on adding a new award to the categories, namely one a company that has embarked on Sustainability Reporting as a first time initiative.

The awards, which is a global initiative and is based on judging guidelines established by ACCA worldwide, is currently held in over 25 countries and is open to any type of organisation encompassing all business sizes.  Comprehensiveness, credibility and communication, identifying and rewarding innovative attempts to communicate corporate performance, which are all aligned to the sustainability concept are a part of the marking scheme.  As ACCA Sri Lanka President, Nisreen Rehmanjee says, “The ACCA Sri Lanka Sustainability Reporting Awards recognises the need for full integration of the sustainability principles within an entity’s business strategy and rewards transparency in reporting of the same in accordance with established guidelines according to globally benchmarked criteria.  We will continue to promote this view as we firmly believe that it is in the best interests of our country and the future generations that we take a holistic approach to sustainability rather than a piecemeal approach based on initiatives”.

The ACCA Sustainability Reporting Awards are already functional in 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.

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