SDG Business Pioneers in BiH for 2020 awarded

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 €ť and “Resources and Environment €ť,
and the overall winner for Bosnia and Herzegovina was announced.

Winners in the field of “People €ť:
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 €ť, 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.

“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 €ť, 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 €ť,
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 €ť which is implemented by the
UNDP in BiH, and funded by Sweden.