Best Corporate Citizen Award 2012 in Nov 12

Sanjeevi JAYASURIYA

The Best Corporate Citizen Award 2012, organized by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce for the ninth consecutive year, will be held on November 12, at the Cinnamon Grand Colombo.” This event would recognize the corporate responsibility in Sri Lanka and encourage businesses to adopt strategic corporate responsibility.

It would evaluate the performance of the company and key stakeholder perspective, while recognizing the best practices,” Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Chief Economist Gayathri Gunaruwan told the Daily News Business.

The recognition of the performances of companies to become competitive and build up to international standards, would augurs well for the private sector. There is an increased interest shown in the awards, where a total of 56 applications had been received last year, she said.

This year, the Chamber had increased the number of category awards and introduced sector awards to appreciate the best practices of corporate entities from diverse stakeholder perspectives.

“In expanding the awards, we have retained the focus on reporting, which had been specifically addressed during last year’s application.

The awards are intended to encourage businesses to follow sustainable practices and report them.

The Best Corporate Citizen Award 2012 (BCC) assesses the services of a corporate entity, be it private or public, to its stakeholders under the aspects of environment, employees, customers, suppliers, community, government and stakeholders. Applications would be called under two categories of companies, with a turnover of Rs 15 billion or over and enterprises with a turnover below Rs 15 billion. The closing date for applications is September 14.

The BCC awards rate an applicant’s interactions with its stakeholders clustered into five groups of environment, employee relations,

customer and supplier relations, community relations and CSR and economic contribution and governance.

There would be awards for best CSR projects 2012, under areas of education and training, North/East reconciliation, environment,

infrastructure and other projects with an attempt to recognize and encourage noble efforts of the private and public sector.

“These awards are to encourage the private and public sector to engage in specific projects beyond their normal course of business. With a view to attract wider participation, projects carried out under a diverse umbrella of spheres, are eligible to apply for the awards,” she said.

The applications for two categories of awards would be evaluated by an independent panel of evaluators who are experts in the specific areas. The criteria for the awards is reviewed and evaluated each year to ensure new concepts and developments are taken into consideration.

The awards provide an opportunity for the companies to showcase their capabilities and potentials and strive to reach the next level, Gunaruwan said.