Oxford College of Business win Hallbars Sustainability Award 2021

Oxford College of Business has been awarded the sustainability ‘Oscar’ at the Hallbars Sustainability Reports Awards held at the Alfred Nobel House in Karlskoga, Sweden on 21 October, the birthday of inventor and founder of the Nobel Prizes, Alfred Nobel. Due to COVID-19 attendance restrictions, Oxford College of Business did not attend in person. 

Hallbars has released the results of its latest Sustainability Reports Awards naming Oxford College of Business Annual Report 2020/21 as the third ‘Best in the World’ in the University category, by the Swedish organisation that recognises the best planet-led reporting in around the world. The aim of Hallbars is to promote the production and readership of reports centred on some of the most pressing ecological issues of our time.  

Commenting on the latest win, Oxford College of Business Director/CEO Malindu Ranasinghe said: “I am extremely proud of this great achievement and give all glory and honour to Christ alone. This is a major achievement for our team at Oxford College of Business. Higher education is a tough business to be in, and sustainability in education is more so, therefore, to be recognised globally is truly incredible and cements our mission to develop skilled leaders for industry and business, by offering value-based quality education’ in the field of business.

“Obtaining this recognition makes us extremely happy and invites us to continue advancing with enthusiasm in our goal of being better for the world every day. Having positioned ourselves as leaders of the higher education industry is a call to continue challenging ourselves and improve transparency, management and reporting of our actions. We hope that everyone can read this report and reflect on the different actions that the company undertook, which is aligned with our recent certification as a BBB rated company by ICRA Lanka which is the parent company of the international Credit Rating Agency, Moody’s Investors Service.”

Hallbars Research Institute is an international institution headquartered in Sweden which is focused on the promotion of sustainability reports. The awards aim is to promote the distribution of sustainability reports globally. This year, the jury delivered its verdict after analysing more than 1,000 reports from 58 countries around the world, with 283 reports obtaining recognition. 

While the competition also recognises the best sustainability reports within each nation who then make it into a shortlist to compete for the world prize. The annual report of Oxford College of Business was one of the 6 shortlisted organisations which also included: McGill University – Canada (Sustainability Projects Fund Annual Report 2020), - Ecole des Ponts Paristech – France (Rapport d’activité 2020), Trinity College of Dublin – Ireland (Sustainability Report 2020), Universita de Bologna – Itally (Bilancio Sociale 2020), EPFL: Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne – Switzerland (Sustainability Significant Accomplishment). 

In September, OCB’s Annual Report 2020/21 was named the Best in Sri Lanka, enabling it to compete for the Best in the World award. Ecole des Ponts Paristech (France) and Universita de Bologna (Italy) came first and second in the University (H12) category respectively.