Globally, investors, consumers and potential employees have been growing more aware for the need for sustainable development.

This is mainly because in order for a business to be successful in this context, strong growths and profit margins are no longer enough, sustainable principles also have to be embedded into business models.

“Demonstrating the social and environmental responsibility of a company is becoming increasingly important for investors and consumers alike – and companies that don’t feature should be asking themselves if this may affect their competitive advantage,” Richard Welford, chairman of CSR Asia, commented.

Encouraging firms to prioristise sustainability development through their practices, Channel NewsAsia and its partners, CSR Asia and Sustainalytics today announced its new sustainability ranking, listing out the top performing Asian companies in terms of corporate sustainability performance.

Wipro Ltd. from India emerged as the best firm for sustainability development this year, having proven its excellence in the three ranking criteria – environmental (operations, supply chain and products and services), social (employees, supply chain, customers and community and philanthropy) and governance (business ethics, corporate governance and public policy),

In fact, the top three companies in Asia were all dominated by names within the technology sector, with second and third being United Microelectronics Corporation from Taiwan and Tech Mahindra Limited from India.

Debra Soon, head of MediaCorp’s news and premier, said: “Sustainability and corporate responsibility are important themes as Asia progresses; we cannot be content to just celebrate financial success in businesses, we must strive for better corporate practices and help Asian companies benchmark themselves against the finest and adopt best practices.”

Wipro came out tops this year for its strong corporate governance, while United Microelectronics Corporation was commended for its robust water risk management programme.

Tech Mahindra Limited was lauded for its SMART (Skills-for-Market-Training) and SMART+ (for persons with disabilities) programmes, which encourages and facilitates employment opportunities for youth from marginalised communities.

Sustainalytics’ CEO Michael Jantzi added: “We believe this initiative plays a critical role in helping to raise awareness of sustainability best practices in the Asia-Pacific region, and hope the ranking will inspire more companies to embed sustainable practices in their business operations.”

READ MORE: Singapore, Malaysia show huge jumps in corporate responsibility reporting

The top three companies in each country and their overall ranks are:

Singapore:
City Developments Limited (6)
CapitaLand Limited (29)
Keppel Land Ltd. (35)

Malaysia:
Digi.com Bhd (40)
Bursa Malaysia Bhd (49)
Malayan Banking Bhd (65)

Hong Kong:
Swire Properties Limited (17)
Lenovo Group Ltd. (18)
MTR Corporation Limited (33)

China:
Trina Solar Limited
China Vanke Co. Ltd.
BOE Technology Group Co. Ltd.

India:
Wipro Ltd. (1)
Tech Mahindra Limited (3)
Tata Consultancy Services Limited (4)

Indonesia:
Unilever Indonesia Tbk PT (7)
PT Vale Indonesia Tbk (25)
PT Bukit Asam (Persero) Tbk

Japan:
NEC Corp. (14)
Anritsu Corp. (21)
Kao Corp. (26)

Philippines:
Ayala Land, Inc.
Energy Development Corporation
Petron Corp.

South Korea:
S-Oil Corp. (10)
LG Innotek Co., Ltd. (11)
Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd (19)

Taiwan:
United Microelectronics Corporation (2)
Lite-On Technology Corp. (8)
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (9)

Thailand:
Thai Oil Public Co Ltd. (13)
IRPC Public Company Limited (16)
Siam Cement Public Co. Ltd. (30)

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