United Nations Development Program in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNDP BiH), with support of Sweden, at a ceremony organized at the International Center for Children and Youth Novo Sarajevo in Sarajevo today proclaimed the SDG Business Pioneers in BiH for the second time ever.
The SDG Business Pioneers Award ceremony is the final event of the annual SDG Business Pioneers competition for 2020, which aims to promote private sector efforts in the field of sustainable development in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The awards were given for achievements in the thematic fields “People” and “Resources and Environment”, and the overall winner for Bosnia and Herzegovina was announced.
Winners in the field of “People”: in the category of micro companies, Stitch 22 d.o.o. Sarajevo was declared the SDG Business Pioneer, while in the category of small companies the winner was Unija MF d.o.o. Sarajevo. In the category of medium enterprises Ministry of Programming d.o.o. Sarajevo took the winner title, while in the category of large companies the SDG Business Pioneer in Bosnia and Herzegovina for 2020 is Lanaco d.o.o. Banja Luka.
In the category of micro companies under the theme “Resources and Environment”, the company Turboservis B-H d.o.o. Sarajevo was selected; while in the same theme, but in the category of small enterprises, the title was taken by the company Jaffa-Komerc d.o.o. Blagaj. In the categories of medium and large enterprises, trophy was awarded to Tvornica cementa Kakanj d.d. (medium enterprise) and Coca-Cola HBC B-H d.o.o. Sarajevo (large enterprise).
Tvornica cementa Kakanj d.d, a company which contributed to the promotion of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the private sector in BiH, was declared the overall winner, i.e. the SDG Business Pioneer for 2020.
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“I am really happy because we received the overall winner’s award for fulfilling the goals of sustainable development for the second year in a row. Today we celebrate the work and efforts of our team that has ensured that we are engaged in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals. We will do our best to continue working on building a sustainable world in order to be an inspiration to other teams working on building a sustainable world and BiH. Thank you to UNDP and Sweden for recognizing our efforts to build a sustainable world”, said Izudin Neimarlija, member of the board of Tvornica cementa Kakanj.
“Using the compass of the SDGs will create new jobs, reduce inequality and poverty and protect the environment for future generations. This will be vital to improve the resilience of our societies and safeguard the future of both people and planet. Sweden has set out to become the world’s first fossil-free welfare nation by 2045. The fight against climate change and air pollution is one of Sweden’s top priorities, a fight which is closely linked to transitioning towards a green economy and realization of the SDGs”, stated Mr Torgny Svenungsson, Deputy Head of Mission of Swedish Embassy. He also added that they were very happy with the participation of the private sector in fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2030.
The SDG Business Pioneers Award recognizes and accentuates the efforts of private sector companies related to achieving the SDGs in BiH as well as motivates new entrepreneurs to create their business models in accordance with the SDGs. It is organized under the project “SDGs Roll-Out Support and Private Sector engagement” which is implemented by the UNDP in BiH, and funded by Sweden.