The Corporate Sustainability Index (CSI) Programme 2022, the seventh of its kind so far, was launched on Thursday, aiming to assess enterprises’ sustainability and encourage them to adopt sustainable practices.

Vietnamese consumers now have a higher awareness of selecting “green” products and services. By adopting sustainable practices, enterprises will meet consumers’ demand and also generate long-term benefits for themselves, Nguyen Quang Vinh, deputy chairman of the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and chairman of the Viet Nam Business Council for Sustainable Development (VBCSD), told the ceremony in Ha Noi.

VCCI and VBCSD have been striving to promote responsible business practices in enterprises, he said, noting that the CSI Programme and the CSI criteria are among those efforts.

The set of CSI criteria is not only an assessment tool in the programme but also useful to Viet Nam’s small- and medium-sized enterprises to improve their corporate governance towards sustainability, Vinh added.

Elaborating on the CSI Programme 2022, Director of the Office for Business Sustainable Development Nguyen Tien Huy said this year’s CSI criteria feature 130 sub-indexes, 68 per cent of which are related to legal compliance and the rest to corporate sustainability initiatives.

The programme will receive entries from enterprises of all sizes and sectors via the Internet, which will help ensure transparency and objectivity.

Aside from announcing the 100 companies in the CSI list, the programme will also honour the firms with outstanding achievements in implementing the circular economy model, responding to climate change, empowering women, promoting gender equality in workplaces, and adopting responsible business practices in terms of human rights and children’s rights, according to Huy. — VNS