ACCA to Host Sustainability Reporting Awards on 25th February

London, United Kingdom, February 25, 2010 --(PR.com)-- ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) is preparing for the sixth ACCA Sustainability Reporting Awards to be held on February 25th at the Oak Room of the Cinnamon Grand. The high profile event showcases the importance of sustainability reporting, building on the GRI guidelines and triple bottom line reporting. The Chief Guest will be Country Director of GRI Focal Point India Dr Aditi Haldar.

Every year, the prestigious awards are conferred on companies who have conformed to reporting guidelines in the small, medium and large sectors, in addition to companies who are worthy of runners up kudos. Last year, Holcim Lanka won in the large category for the second time while Hatton National Bank was adjudged the Runner up. Union Assurance won in the Small Category with Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings coming in as Runners up.

The awards, which is a global initiative and is based on judging guidelines established by ACCA worldwide, is currently held in over 25 countries and is open to any type of organisation encompassing all business sizes. Comprehensiveness, credibility and communication, identifying and rewarding innovative attempts to communicate corporate performance, which are all aligned to the sustainability concept are a part of the marking scheme.

ACCA Sri Lanka President, Nandika Buddhipala says, “It is notable that companies in Sri Lanka now consider sustainability reporting a part of their everyday workings. Proper sustainability reporting is challenging at the best of times, as while it does implement and establish uniform accountable and transparent guidelines on how economic, social and environmental impacts of an organisation should be reported, it also means that employees from top to bottom, must be made conscious of these reporting procedures.

“While most multinational companies around the world consider sustainability reporting as a responsibility towards their stakeholders, what we find most exciting in Sri Lanka is the fact that we have an increasing number of Sri Lankan based companies that are entering and winning the awards.”

The ACCA Sustainability Reporting Awards are already functional in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the UK and the USA with similar awards, largely based on the ACCA criteria, existing in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

###