CSR

Corporate Social Responsibility (or corporate accountability, corporate sustainability, transparency or corporate citizenship), has moved from the margins of the nice to do, to become a central focus in the drive for sustained competitiveness. This can be attributed to societal changes associated with climate change, the globalization of supply chains (which interlinks companies from one end of the globe to the other), and the multi-faceted implications of a networked society. These represent risks to those companies that fail to recognize the significance of these factors. At the same time, they also represent sources of potential opportunity and success to those whose products and processes are responsive to these dramatically changing business conditions.

The fundamental issue that we want to challenge, is that Corporate Accountability is not about donating sums of money or carrying out projects for the under privileged and then crowing about it in the media. It is all about carrying out the entire business in a socially responsible and accountable manner and to make that the usual way of doing business.

STING Consultants is a registered organizational stakeholder of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and supports the mission of the GRI to develop globally accepted sustainability reporting guidelines through a global, multi-stakeholder process.

CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY RATING

In order to create awareness on the importance of adopting a strategic approach to CSR, we have published the latest ranking of Sri Lanka’s top businesses in the Corporate Accountability Index published in February 2010

The purpose of this rating system is not to give awards. Instead, this rating system will focus on assessing the level of individual business’s ability to understand and institute relevant processes and systems to implement and adopt a strategic accountability programme.  This is open to all businesses operating in the country and is expected to be an annual programme, which will enable organizations to measure their effectiveness annually.

If you want to benchmark your company so as to identify your own areas of strength and weaknesses with the intention of improving your capabilities and standing, we could carry out an audit. For details click here.

GREEN GLOBE

Green Globe is the premier international brand for sustainable travel, tourism and related green businesses. This well known certification can be an important tool to build corporate reputation by certifying that hotels, resorts, businesses and organizations are conforming to international environmental and corporate accountability practices.

REPORTING AND CERTIFYING

 It is now well recognized that the reporting of sustainability issues by organizations is an important part of building corporate reputation. Uncertain market conditions and financial turmoil have accelerated the sustainability agenda, as companies scramble to stamp their corporate brand reputation. This has forced companies to enhance the way they act towards stakeholders.

Due to the lack of a standard reporting format, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) based in Amsterdam was formed in order to develop and disseminate globally applicable sustainability reporting guidelines. A collaborating centre of the United Nations Environment Programme, the GRI is the steward of what has become the most widely used standardized sustainability reporting framework for performance on human rights, labour, environmental, anti-corruption, and other corporate citizenship issues, in the world.

Through STING Consultants’ knowledge in this field, we are able to assist companies in sustainability reporting in line with the GRI guidelines.

We are also able to offer a third-party checking service of GRI-based reports, to certify the level at which the Guidelines have been adopted. This will allow the use of the GRI “third-party checked” icon in your company’s sustainability report.

LIST OF GRI-BASED REPORTS IN SRI LANKA

STING Consultants has made a commitment to encourage the adoption of the GRI Guidelines amongst Sri Lankan corporates when reporting on sustainability performance in order to encourage transparency, accountability and comparability of information. As part of this commitment we have compiled a database of sustainability reports which have been based on the Guidelines, published by local companies to date. The purpose of this is to facilitate accessibility of reports for interested parties, and to create further awareness amongst corporates on the importance as well as the relevance of adopting the Guidelines when disclosing information on sustainability performance. We encourage more companies to work towards being included in this list.

Sri Lanka GRI report listing

If your company has published a GRI based report which has not been included in this list, please contact us with the relevant information.