13 companies publish sustainability reports

Thirteen companies, including seven listed on the stock exchange, have published their GRI sustainability reports.

The companies released the reports on a Zoom platform on Monday, according to a press release from the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE).

The companies are: Envoy Textile, GPH Ispat Limited, BRAC Bank, Standard Bank, Shahjalal Islami Bank, Jamuna Bank, LankaBangla Finance, Blue Planet Group, Pacific Jeans Group, New Age Group, Bitopi Group, Flow-Water Solutions and Flow-Solar Solutions Ltd.

At the online meeting, Abdur Razzak, deputy general manager of DSE Training Academy, said that the collaborative initiative of GRI-DSE has been on since 2018. 

Under the initiative, awareness about sustainability reports is created among the listed companies.

Earlier in 2019, the DSE on its website published “Guidelines for Sustainable Reporting for Companies Listed in Bangladesh”. 

The DSE and GRI have already conducted numerous workshops and technical workshops under collaborative initiatives, where senior executives of listed companies take part.

Aditi Haldar, director (South Asia), GRI, said GRI has a footprint in more than 100 countries to support ESG reporting in a more effective and smart way.

“Among the countries, Bangladesh is an important country for GRI, which will help in its qualitative growth and development with the aim of building a developed country,” she added.

IOTA, a local consulting firm certified by GRI, has provided internal technical assistance to the companies for drafting the report based on the GRI standard in Bangladesh.