Sustainability & transformative best practices at heart of CSR Awards Shortlist CSR Awards 2019 Shortlist Announced Today

Chambers Ireland today (8 July 2019) officially announced the shortlist for the 2019 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Awards. Over seventy shortlisted projects across the fourteen award categories are recognised for CSR activities and initiatives which are ambitious, innovative and practical in scope.

Announcing the shortlist, Ian Talbot, Chambers Ireland Chief Executive said,

The shortlist for the 16th edition of the CSR Awards leaves no doubt about the scale of ingenuity and resourcefulness of companies large and small across Ireland when it comes to new and visionary CSR projects. We’re thrilled to be able to reveal these projects today.

We’re very excited in particular with this year’s shortlisted projects due to the greater prominence given to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the awards voting criteria, through more specific criteria for showing engagement with the objectives of the SDGs.

The economic, social and environmental challenges which we are collectively facing today cannot be managed and dealt with by governments and NGOs alone. Complex sustainability issues in the areas of climate and economic inclusion have resounding impacts which will prove costly for businesses to ignore in the long and short term.

The SDGs are a compass to which companies can measure and align their strategies to, and in doing so can inspire, influence and provide practical examples of the steps to be taken to work towards the goals. The business case for the SDGs and the significance of sustainability is at the core of the importance of transformative CSR best practices today.

Providing visibility to the significance of CSR best practices through the showcasing of the excellence projects at the annual CSR Awards is a responsibility which we at Chambers Ireland are proud to continuously commit to.

I would like to wish all shortlisted applicants the very best of luck.”

The Chambers Ireland CSR Awards are partnered with Business in the Community Ireland, sponsored by BAM Ireland and run in association with the Department of Rural and Community Development.

Minister of State for Rural and Community Development Seán Canney TD commented,

“I am delighted to support the Annual Corporate Social Responsibility Awards which recognise the valuable work of organisations in Irish communities.

The principles on which the Awards are based tie in closely with the objectives of promoting and supporting the sustainable and inclusive development of communities which is a key strategy of my Department.”

Theo Cullinane, Chief Executive at BAM Ireland, said,

“The shortlist for the Chambers Ireland 2019 CSR Awards is particularly impressive and highlights the breadth and diversity of CSR projects being undertaken across Irish business.  We can safely say that CSR is now firmly embedded in the DNA of companies across Ireland and is recognised as a key competitive differentiator for employees, clients and other stakeholders. 

BAM has sponsored the Awards for the past eight years and we are delighted that it provides a super platform to celebrate and develop CSR excellence across the country.

At BAM, sustainability and CSR are core to what we do.  Through our ‘Enhancing Lives’ programme the BAM Group is committed to enhancing the lives of one million people by 2020 through the range of projects we undertake.  We are a global leader in carbon reduction and have committed to halving our carbon intensity by 2030.  This includes investing €1.5 million this year to converting our fleet to electric vehicles.  

And in marking our 150th anniversary this year, the Group is planting 150,000 trees all around the world, including 9,000 in Ireland.

– ENDS –