Financial Times

CTC wins first-ever ACCA Sri Lanka CSR Award
Setting an example for other corporates to follow in transparency and excellence in reporting, the Ceylon Tobacco Company (CTC) clinched the first ever Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) Sri Lanka Award for 'Sustainability Reporting', at a glittering presentation, last Wednesday.

Launched last November, the ACCA Sustainability Reporting Awards aims to reward transparency by recognising organisations that report on and disclose social, environmental and sustainability information, while encouraging such reporting and raising awareness of corporate transparency. CTC surpassed 15 blue-chip organisations to receive this prestigious award from the Minister of Finance, Dr. Sarath Amunugama.

The judging criteria placed emphasis on completeness, credibility and communication. The judging panel commended the report for including development issues of staff, identifying key issues for the business, clear disclosure of social responsibilities, environmental practices and its attractive presentation."

While reporting on environmental and sustainability issues is relatively new in Sri Lanka, CTC broke new ground in 2001 when it became the first company in the country to produce an independently audited Social Report.

The commendation for 'Integration of Business within the Immediate Environment' was awarded to Ranweli Holiday Village Ltd for demonstrating how a business can operate within the capacity of the surrounding environment, attempting to operate in an environmentally sustainable manner. The company report informatively showed what environmental impacts the hotel has on the surrounding ecosystem, while showing a clear commitment to conservation and the impacts it had on its surrounding environment. Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings Ltd received a commendation for 'Integration of Environment within Business Operations' for demonstrating how the company is attempting to integrate environmental issues into mainstream business operation and practice.

Seventy-five listed companies and 25 non-listed companies were taken into consideration in the survey. The latest annual report published by listed firms and documents published by their non-listed counterparts that were similar in nature to were considered for the research. The survey revealed that only 69 percent of the 75 listed firms reported some sort of disclosure on environmental and social issue, while 31 percent did not respond to these issues at all.

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