The Bank of Ceylon celebrated its 80th Anniversary at its Head Office – the iconic “BOC Tower” on the 1st August 2019, beginning with a ceremony involving all four religions to invoke blessings on the Bank.
The ceremony took place at the first floor of the BOC Tower with the participation of Acting Chairman of the bank, Kumar Mayadunne, P A Schaffter Director BOC, General Manager/ CEO Senarath Bandara, Members of the Corporate and Executive Management of the Bank, distinguished group of customers and well-wishers and the staff of BOC
Bank of Ceylon has been recently awarded the “Outstanding Green Commitment Award” by the Green Building Council of Sri Lanka for the bank’s continuous commitment in expanding its Green Banking practices to minimize the carbon foot print, considering the branches which have been built under “Green Banking Concept”, and the contribution made to the national grid through solar panels fixed to the bank buildings and energy saving plan implemented at the Head Office.
Some of the leading green practices adopted by the Bank of Ceylon are as follows.
- Installation of a Solar Photovoltaic system
The bank has initiated a program for installing solar photovoltaic electricity generation in its branches. Now 1855kW are installed in the system. Already 41 branches are connected to the solar system and 36 branches are monitored on daily basis.
- Green Building Certification
The Bank is striving to transform their branch buildings to Green Buildings. The BOC Kekirawa branch was awarded the Green SL® Gold award by the GBCSL. Several other new branches are pursuing to reach green building status and obtain Green Building certification.
- Estimation of Greenhouse Gas Inventory
A Greenhouse Gas Inventory of the entire Bank including all branches has been carried out as per ISO14064 for the period covering September 2017 to August 2018 emissions and verification of the GHG statement is certified by Sustainability Future Group for a period of two years until march 2021.
- Best Corporate Citizen for Sustainability award
The Bank of Ceylon was listed as one of the Top Ten Corporate Citizens at the Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability Award 2018, an annual event organized by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. The undersigned was a member of the panel of evaluators and has firsthand knowledge on the performance of the Bank of Ceylon under Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability Award.
- Funding Environmental projects
The Bank has funded over Rs. 640 Million in Renewable Energy Projects in 2017 year in the Retail sector and has also agreed to finance two large scale waste-to-energy plants in the Corporate Sector contributing to solve the solid waste management problem in the city of Colombo.
- Improving Resource Productivity
Bank has converted their Documentation Management Systems (DMS) to a digitalized system recently by computerization saving a large amount of paper amounting to 260,000 sheets which is approximately equivalent to 1300 kilograms of paper (equivalent to 25 trees saved or 130 tons of resources).
In 2017, Bank of Ceylon has turned down 25 credit proposals which failed to comply with relevant environmental regulations and refused provide credit facilities.
We congratulate, Bank of Ceylon for their admirable achievements made throughout the remarkable journey of 80 years and welcome in engaging more and more effective ways to enhance their commitment towards environmental sustainability.
