Transformative economic, social and environmental impact of its actions won much national and regional acclaim in 2014 for Watawala Plantations PLC, a subsidiary of Sunshine Holdings PLC.
‘Triple bottom line’ focused strategies, served to yield rich dividends even at grass-root levels and resulted in the company being recognised with 13 national and two prestigious regional awards. The total tally of 15 awards received by Watawala included five gold awards.
Watawala Plantations received 13 awards within the last four months of the year alone, based on vastly different criteria, ranging from process improvements to leadership in Corporate Social Responsibility, energy efficiency and people management.
The company’s interventions reflected its unique vision "We will take a path no one has walked before and many will want to follow." Combined, these interventions made a significant impact. For example, substantial reduction in energy consumption by the company resulted in saving an estimated 12,700 trees, which otherwise would have been felled for fuel. In addition, job satisfaction and motivation of ‘associates’ were further improved, sustainable livelihoods were created and significant improvements were achieved by Watawala Plantations in productivity, quality and internal processes, among a host of other developments.
"Far more than the number of awards, which serve primarily as benchmarks of progress, we are extremely pleased that our targeted efforts to make a substantial positive impact on our business operations, environment and our associates continue to yield rich dividends," Director/CEO of Watawala Plantations, Dr. Dan Seevaratnam said. "We will continue to ‘raise the bar’, to achieve our goal of becoming a best in class entity in every aspect."
Pointing out that Watawala Plantations won a number of awards by overcoming competition from leading organisations from other industries, Dr. Seevaratnam noted that Watawala has gone beyond a leader in the plantation sector, to a leader in the corporate sector, with international recognition.
One of the regional Gold awards won by Watawala was awarded by the South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA) for the Best Presented Annual Report (agriculture sector). The award recognised Watawala’s strength in financial transparency, governance and accountability. The company’s annual report was the sole Sri Lankan winner in the agriculture category at the awards ceremony and the company won this award for the third successive time this year. Watawala’s annual report was honoured locally too, with a Gold Award for the seventh consecutive year, by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka.
No comments:
Post a Comment