MAS Celebrates Dual Win at Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability Awards 2023
IMAS n an affirmation of the organisation’s ongoing commitment to sustainability, MAS Holdings and its strategic business unit, Kreeda, received prestigious recognition at the Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability Awards 2023, organised by The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.
MAS Kreeda’s comprehensive work on product and service responsibility, responsible marketing, and futurefocused strategies, efforts in sustainable sourcing and manufacturing, and ensuring continuous customer dialogue and satisfaction, helped secure its victory in the Customer Relations category.
Meanwhile, MAS Holdings also won a Best Project Sustainability Award, shining a light on the Group’s transformative MAS Breast Cancer Awareness Programme. A true reflection of MAS’S people-centric values, the programme encompasses the efforts of business units Bodyline and MAS Intimates, to extend its impact to MAS employees, surrounding communities, and patients at the Apeksha Cancer Hospital.
COMMITMENT TO PLANNING FOR CHANGE
The accolades received are a nod to the company’s sustainability strategy, the MAS Plan for Change, which was launched a few years ago, a culmination of decades of work in empowering women, reducing the company’s environmental footprint, and embracing innovation to create products that are better for the wearer and the planet.
The evolution of the company’s sustainability journey is the result of rethinking strategies and reevaluating the impacts of the business to ensure continuous improvement on the positive influence that MAS can have on the world. The MAS Plan for Change has now consolidated the group’s social, environmental and product sustainability efforts into one sustainability strategy, combining the strengths of teams and aligning goals to
achieve greater consistency and impact.
The result is a target-driven plan that articulates the company’s commitment to inspiring change within its business, amongst customers, people, communities, and within the planet at large. The Plan outlines twelve commitments for 2025, through the three areas of focus, Products, Lives, and Planet.
RESPONSIBILITY TO OUR CUSTOMERS
MAS believes that as a responsible manufacturer, products are at the heart of the value it delivers to its customers. This acts as a key motivator to design and develop products that are good for the wearer, good for the planet, and good for business.
MAS has a goal of generating 50% of its revenue through sustainable products
by 2025, which has led strategic business unit MAS Kreeda to work closely with its customers to understand consumer needs and create game-changing sustainable product solutions and platforms to address them. To achieve this, the team at MAS Kreeda explores innovative strategies that are focused on creating long-lasting, recyclable products, while also extending the lifespan of nonbiodegradable materials by giving them a second life as apparel.
The team also believes in its responsibility to provide its customers with a trusted partner that they can depend on as a sustainable and ethical manufacturer. These efforts involve driving robust processes to improve sustainability performance within manufacturing plants that align with both MAS strategy as well as the customers’ established sustainability goals and targets. Monthly reports on environmental, social, and compliance performance create accountability, and help track progress, while check and adjusting on areas that require more focus. MAS Kreeda operates towards the overall ambition of creating sustainable business models, fostering ethical people practices as well as environmentally friendly manufacturing processes.
EMPOWERING THROUGH AWARENESS
MAS believes that its people remain its greatest asset, and work to ensure that the company’s impact helps change their lives for good. With a majority female workforce, MAS is committed to empowering female employees by focusing on areas such as leadership, training, financial inclusion, women’s health, childcare support, and prevention of gender-based violence.
The MAS Breast Cancer Awareness Programme stems from the culmination of efforts from Bodyline and MAS Intimates to fill a knowledge / access gap in this sensitive subject area for our female employees. The programme focuses on a four-pronged approach to addressing this issue through awareness and education, screening, providing financial and technical support, as well as the donation of mastectomy bras to breast cancer survivors. By filling in the knowledge gaps on breast cancer detection across the workforce, families, and communities, MAS hopes to encourage more women to focus on early detection, which allows patients to seek lifesaving interventions on time.
MAS acknowledges and celebrates the tireless dedication of its teams that have paved the way for this recognition, while integrating the learnings of its ongoing efforts to navigate the next steps of its journey towards building a responsible and ethical apparel industry, and a sustainable world for all.