CCC holds briefing for the Best Corporate Citizens Sustainability Awards 2021

The Chamber recently held an informative webinar to brief the prospective applicants for the Best Corporate Citizens Awards 2021. The BCCS Awards will be held this year for the 18thconsecutive year and is one of the most anticipated events in the corporate calendar.

The panel of evaluators who conducted this session included Dr. Ananda Mallawatantri Chairman of the Panel of Evaluators, Mr. Sena Peiris, Dr. Mallika Samaranayake, Dr. Ravi Fernando, Mr. Prasad De Silva, Mr. Ajith Ratnayake and Dr. Kiran Dhanapala.

Welcoming the participants Mr. Manjula De Silva, CEO/ Secretary General of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce stated “Sustainability is increasingly important at a time when the word sustainability comes in every sphere we operate in. The Chamber is humbled to have introduced these awards many years ago. Even during the most challenging times last year, we were able to conduct this Award program on a digital platform and successfully held the awards ceremony as well adhering to the government health guidelines. The objective is to encourage corporate sustainability in Sri Lanka and to promote it among the wider communities. Some companies rank high in this but in some it may not be evident. BCCS Awards is a platform to share initiatives, success stories and experiences with others and most importantly to receive invaluable feedback from evaluators to help towards continuous improvement.”

Dr. Ananda Mallawatantri, Chairman of the Panel of Evaluators mentioned “Corporate Sustainability is now more important than ever before. BCCS 2021 recognizes the year 2020/2021 as a challenging year for corporates. Therefore, considering the COVID-19 pandemic that affected corporates and the sustainability initiatives in 2020, we adopted an improved evaluation criteria this year along with the introduction of three awards for the outstanding sustainability strategies that have been successfully implemented by the corporates.”

The Awards are not just for large corporations, but is a holistic competition which encourages efforts of smaller enterprises as well. It recognises the efforts of the private and public sector to interact responsibly with its stakeholders, through recognising the importance of corporate sustainability in Sri Lanka.

Focal areas of the competition include environment, customer relations, community relations, governance, financial performance, economic contribution and special sustainable projects to name a few. Those interested in obtaining further information may contact Oshadhi on 0115588851/oshadhi@chamber.lk or Whitney on 0115588850/hr@chamber.lk.