Bangladesh Sustainability Alliance formed

The Bangladesh Sustainability Alliance (BSA) has started its journey as a collaborative initiative of the South Asian country's top businesses and development organisations to practise and promote the sustainable development agenda on a broader scale.

The newly formed Alliance Partners have been visionary and pioneering in getting together as the alliance. They are BRAC, Pran-RFL Group, Standard Chartered Bangladesh, Unilever Bangladesh Limited, Bangladesh Petrochemical Company Limited, Marico Bangladesh Limited, Inter-continental Hotels and PepsiCo Bangladesh.

In its maiden public programme at a hotel in Dhaka on Monday, BSA urged other businesses and organisations to join the collective effort for sustainability across the climate-vulnerable, fast-growing Bangladesh, said a press release today.

The majority of the alliance partners are already doing a commendable amount of work independently on the various sustainability-related themes to address climate change, waste management and livelihood improvement, alliance members said at the event adding that their partnership with the BSA will ensure that these efforts are aligned with the country's vision built on mutual learning and experience.

The chief guest of the event, Saber Hossain Choudhury, Member of Parliament, Special Envoy to the Prime Minister on Environment and Climate Change expressed his appreciation for the alliance and said, "We need to get all kinds of industries join this coalition and not just the big multi-national companies. You can be the trailblazers but who will follow the trail? We need all sorts of engagements from the corporates to the SMEs. I can only say that there will be constructive engagement from the ministry and wish the best for this initiative."

Asif Saleh, the Executive Director of BRAC and Zaved Akhtar, Chairman and Managing Director of Unilever Bangladesh Limited commenced the evening with a presentation on the background and journey of the Alliance.

Unilever Bangladesh Chairman and Managing Director Zaved Akhtar, BRAC Executive Director Asif Saleh, Standard Chartered Bangladesh CEO Naser Ezaz, and Bangladesh Petrochemical Company MD Khadem Yusuf were among the speakers at the event.