Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), the national telecommunication service provider, was the proud recipient of a Merit Certificate at the Sri Lanka National Energy Efficiency Awards (SLNEEA) organized by Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and Renewable Energy. The company is the only telecommunication service provider to win an award this year.

The SLNEEA 2013 was organized on a grand scale at the BMICH, to coincide with the inauguration of Vidulka 2013, the Energy Exhibition. Mr. Niranjana Bandula Seneviratne, DGM / Power & AC of SLT received the certificate on behalf of SLT PLC from Hon. Prime Minister, D.M. Jayaratne. The event was also patronized by the Hon. Susil Premajayantha - Minister of Environment and Renewable Energy, the Hon. A.M Abdul Carder - Deputy Minister of Environment and Renewable Energy, Mr. B.M.U.D Basnayake – the Secretary to the Ministry of Environment and Renewable Energy, Mr. Prasad Galhena – the Chairman, Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority and Dr. Thusitha Sugathapala – the Director General, Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority.

This award is a prestigious national award that encourages, evaluates and rewards excellence in energy management and energy conservation systems within entire organizations, as opposed to focusing on specific individual projects. The award recognizes and rewards energy efficiency across a broad range of industry sectors including manufacturing, healthcare and services (which include hotels, commercial buildings and state sector office buildings). Applications are reviewed via a five stage process and applicants are evaluated on seven different criteria including management commitment to energy management, employee awareness and training, financial commitments (investments), planning / monitoring / evaluating / reporting, energy performance, increase of renewable energy share in the energy source portfolio and other non-energy outcomes including quality enhancements, waste reduction, customer satisfaction and green image etc.

From left to right - Dr. Thusitha Sugathapala, DG of SLSEA, Hon. Abdul Cardar, Deputy Minister of Environment & Renewable Energy and Mr. Prasad Galhena, Chairman, SLSEA. Mr. Niranjana Bandula Seneviratne, DGM/ Power & AC of SLT receiving the award.

“We are proud of this achievement, which is a first step to becoming a more green organization,” said Mr. Priyantha Fernandez, Chief Network Officer of SLT, giving his views on the award received by SLT. “We have always been environmentally focused and as a large corporate entity, we believe it is our responsibility to ensure that our business is conducted with minimum negative impacts on the environment and effectively minimize the carbon footprint. With the appointment of an energy ambassador and energy management council, we aggressively went about implementing energy management activities to meet our energy targets. Awareness programmes were carried out in SLT Offices Island wide to educate and encourage employees on energy conservation and management.”