The awards ceremony of the Hand-in-hand sustainable initiative was concluded recently; amidst a gathering from leading schools, educational institutions and professionals in the business and sustainability fields.  This year’s winners included team Green Troops, from the University of Moratuwa (under the Local/Foreign University Category); team The Resistance from Lyceum International School Panadura (under the International Schools Category) and team Vision of Hearts from Imperial College Kandy (under the CIMA Tuition Colleges Category).  Subinay Nandy, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Sri Lanka, graced the prestigious awards ceremony as the Chief Guest.  All winning teams received a guided tour at Atken Spence Printing & Packaging facility in Mawaramandiya – the first green printing facility in South Asia. 

In his speech, Subinay Nandy stated, ‘Sri Lanka is a role model for many areas of social progress.  Many of your indicators are better than comparative indicators in countries (in Asia).  You have a proud legacy that your social policies in early days, even before independence, were to invest in people.  In today’s event, it is heartening to note that the corporate sector is also engaging in that path.  Until and unless a development agenda is embedded, and completely owned by national stakeholders, it is not going to be sustainable.  So the sustainability also comes from who owns the decision.’

CIMA Sri Lanka, together with the Global Compact Network Sri Lanka, created the Hand-in-hand sustainability initiative via a competition format to recognise schools and tertiary education institutions involved in sustainability related projects.  Radley Stephen, Country Head – Sri Lanka (CIMA) elaborated, ‘It is an opportunity to encourage students to realize that what they are doing is valuable, and to motivate them to take on similar projects in the future.  In CIMA’s perspective, while students are studying the CIMA curriculum, they begin to understand the value of sustainability so that when they go out to organizations, they can work even better and support these organizations to be sustainable.’

This initiative was held for the second consecutive year and the judging panel consisted of: Mr. Sutheash Balasubramaniam (Sri Lanka Respresentative at UN Global Compact Network Sri Lanka), Ms. Amanthi Perera (Manager – Strategic Sustainability, MAS Capital), Mr. Ravi de Silva (Consultant for Social and Environmental Management at Aitken Spence Hotels and for Corporate Sustainability at Aitken Spence PLC) and Mr. Rathika de Silva (Head of Sustainability and Business Excellence at Det Norske Veritas, Sri Lanka).  In addition, MAS Holdings sponsored this year’s initiative.

In addition, participating teams from Stafford International School, University of Moratuwa, International Institute of Health Sciences (IIHS), University of Colombo and Imperial College Kandy were also recognized at the ceremony.  Lending their support to make this event possible were Main Sponsors MAS Holdings, one of the world’s most recognised $1.2 bn Apparel and Textile Manufacturing conglomerates that strives to create a self-sustained ecosystem in the global business arena.

Photo caption: (Above) Subinay Nandy (UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Respresentative in Sri Lanka) was the Chief Guest at the event

[caption id="attachment_15621" align="alignnone" width="675"] ‘Team Resistance’ from Lyceum International School Panadura (Overall Winners of the International Schools Category)[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_15622" align="alignnone" width="675"] ‘Green Troops’ from University of Moratuwa (Overall Winners of the Local/ Foreign University Category)[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_15623" align="alignnone" width="675"] ‘Vision of Hearts’ from Imperial College Kandy (Overall Winners of the CIMA Tuition Colleges Category)[/caption]