First CSR week from November 7-12

For the first time, a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Week will be held in Sri Lanka from 7-12 November 2012. The event is jointly organized by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC), CSR Asia Center at AIT and the Mangroves for the Future (MFF) Programme.

The programme of the CSR week will include a number of fora and training opportunities, such as a day-long session on responsible production, sourcing and employment creation in coastal areas, a training workshop on how companies can conduct a Corporate Ecosystem Services Review giving guidance for identifying Business Risks and Opportunities Arising from Ecosystem change conducted by IUCN, a training workshop on Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability Reporting conducted by CSR Asia and a field excursion to Muthurajawela, Negombo Lagoon Coastal Wetland conducted by MFF and IUCN.

The week will culminate in the Best Corporate Citizen Award 2012 ceremony and banquet which will be held at the Cinnamon Grand, Colombo on 12th November 2012. The awards ceremony will recognize the best companies in Sri Lanka for the contribution they make to the community through their diverse CSR activities.

Thus, the ‘CSR Week’ will provide the Sri Lankan business community with learning and sharing opportunities on strategic approaches to CSR that effectively create value for businesses as well as the communities that depend on them. The CSR week is of great relevance to the current times. At present, sustaining high economic growth rates and improving the lives of people whilst not compromising on environmental conservation and restoration is one of the biggest challenges facing the country as a whole.

Some large multinational and national companies operating in the country have included environmental dimensions into their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) agenda. Yet, an even larger section of the companies at field level implement measures enforced on them by government rules and regulations. Nevertheless, some worthy exceptions have displayed sustained commitment and certainly auger well for social and environmental change, in addition to being an inspiration to others.

It is only when market forces make CSR a crucial component of shareholder value that new competitive forces will emerge in favour of responsible corporate action. It will result in CSR assuming a new dimension _ one that is determined by market forces, and not inspired by corporate consciousness alone.

Participation at each programme is limited and will be on ‘first-come-first-served’ basis. Members of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce interested in participating are invited to do so on or before Thursday November 1, 2012.

More details could be obtained from [email protected] .