Investing in Our Planet on Earth Day

Earth Day is a time where we celebrate and appreciate our planet whilst taking action to sustain our planet. Our planet is facing serious challenges with ‘Global Warming’ and the resulting Climate Change being the most significant environmental challenge of this century. Climate change is affecting every nation, disrupting economies and affecting lives. By addressing climate change, we can build a sustainable world for everyone and the time to act is now.

NDB Bank has embarked on a project to understand and manage the Bank’s climate change impacts. As the first step, the Bank signed an MOU with the verification body ‘Sri Lanka Climate Fund’ (SLCF) to ascertain the Bank’s ‘Carbon Footprint’ – also known as “GHG Assessment”.

Training was also conducted for key internal stakeholders by the GHG Expert – Dr.Lalith Senaweera, Retired Director General/ CEO of the Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI) and GHG Verifier – Gayan Madusanka, GHG validation and Verification Division, Sri Lanka Climate Fund (Pvt) Ltd.

Commenting on the project, the Chairperson of the NDB Corporate Sustainability Committee Ms Melody Wickramanayake said, “Climate Action is a key focus area in the Bank’s sustainability agenda. The goal is to proceed towards being Carbon Neutral which will benefit our planet in many ways. It will also increase efficiencies within the organisation since identifying and quantifying CO2 emissions help to identify & rectify excessive energy usage or other inefficiencies.”

As a responsible corporate citizen, National Development Bank PLC (NDB) is future-oriented with ‘Climate Action’ being a key focus area. Working closely with industry experts such as SLCF will help the Bank to identify best practices for operating in the most sustainable and climate friendly way possible, thereby adding value to the triple bottom line.

NDB Bank was awarded the “Best Digital Bank 2021” at the Asiamoney Best Bank Awards for Sri Lanka in addition to being crowned “Sri Lanka’s Best Bank 2021” by the prestigious Global Finance Magazine of USA, and “The Bank of the Year Sri Lanka”, by The Banker Magazine UK and is the “Most Awarded Corporate 2021” as per LMD ranking. NDB is the 4th largest listed bank in Sri Lanka and the parent company of the NDB Group. The only financial services conglomerate in Sri Lanka, NDB Group is uniquely positioned towards assisting the growth and development of the Sri Lankan financial market to provide its customers seamless access to the product and service offerings of all its group companies

From Left to Right : Sharon De Silva, Senior Manager – NDB Corporate Sustainability, Shanka Abeywardene, Assistant Vice President – NDB Corporate Planning & Business Intelligence, Melody Wickramanayake, Chairperson NDB CS Committee and Vice President – NDB Legal, Chamara Ariyathilaka, CEO – SLCF, Gayan Madusanka, Project Executive – SLCF, Harshani Abeyrathna, Verification Manager – SLCF