SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING AWARDS 2022

Objectives

Organisations are under mounting pressure from investors, governments, non-governmental organisations and other stakeholders to demonstrate their efforts to manage the impacts of their operations. Public, environmental, social and sustainability reporting is now an important route through which corporate accountability and integrity can be demonstrated.

ACCA awards assist in pushing these issues to the forefront.

ACCA Sri Lanka Awards for Sustainability Reporting were launched in November 2004.

The objectives of the awards are to:

■ reward and recognise those organisations which report and disclose environmental, social or full sustainability-information within Sri Lanka

■ encourage the uptake of environmental, social and/or sustainability reporting

■ raise awareness in corporate transparency issues and increase accountability of responsiveness to stakeholders

All organisations have an impact on the environment and society. These impacts can be direct (from day to day operations) or indirect (via the products used and services provided). All organisations should be accountable to their stakeholders and as such, these Awards are open to all sectors and organisations of all sizes.

Key features of sustainability reporting

An excellent sustainability report clearly acknowledges and explains the economic, environmental and social impact to its internal and external stakeholders. The report also demonstrates the organisation’s policies, targets and long term objectives towards the goal of sustainanble developement.

Panel of judges

■ Mr. Franklyn Amerasinghe

Consultant to the panel of judges

■ Ms. Sriyani Hulugalle

Former Senior Economist, World Bank

■ Dr. Ramani Gunatilaka

Independent Consultant

■ Mr. Dinesh Weerakkody

Chairman BOI and Port City Commission

■ Senior Prof. Kennedy D Gunawardana Head of Department of Accounting, Chair of Accounting Professor,

University of Sri Jayewardenepura

■ Dr. Ranjith Cabral

Chairman, Vidura College Colombo. Ex-council Member, University of Colombo & Open University of Sri Lanka

■ Mr. Anthony Jayaranjan

Independent Director Lankem Ceylon PLC.

Judging criteria

The judging panel assessed the applications and focused on the following three key elements of an excellent report:

■ Completeness

■ Credibility

■ Communication

Examples of indicators in the ACCA criteria Completeness (40%)

■ Corporate context

■ Key (direct and indirect) environmental impacts

■ Environmental policy and management commitment

■ Environmental targets and objectives

■ Scope of the report (by entity)

■ Reporting and accounting policies

■ Report audience identified

Credibility (35%)

■ Contingency planning and risk management

■ Compliance/non-compliance record

■ Environmental impact data

■ Environmental financial statements and full cost accounting

■ Approaches to stakeholder dialogue

■ Third party statement

Communication (25%)

■ Layout and appearance

■ Understandability, readability, accessibility, appropriate length

■ Innovative approaches

■ Availability of a summary report and/or executive summary

■ Use of internet

■ Appropriateness of graphs, illustrations, photographs