Significant Improvement in 2024 CSI Program

In an effort to acknowledge and commend enterprises exhibiting sustainable operations across all facets of economics, corporate governance, societal and environmental dimensions, the 2024 Program for Benchmarking and Announcing Sustainable Businesses in Vietnam (CSI Program 2024) has been formally inaugurated. This marks the 9th successive year of executing the Government’s directive.

Nguyen Quang Vinh, Vice President of VCCI and Chair of VBCSD, delivers a speech at the inauguration of the CSI Program 2024

This year, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), with the core being Vietnam Business Council for Sustainable Development (VBCSD), coordinates with the Central Economic Committee, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor to organize the CSI 2024 Program.

Mr. Nguyen Quang Vinh, Vice President of VCCI, Chair of VBCSD, Vice Chair of the Steering Board of the CSI 2024 Program, said: “Throughout the past eight years, the paramount objective of the CSI Program has been to facilitate the transformation of Vietnamese enterprises, entrepreneurs, and the business community from conventional profit-oriented business perspectives toward a more organic, humane, inclusive, and accountable business ethos.”

The Corporate Sustainability Index (CSI) is not only a basis for measuring the degree of corporate sustainability of candidate companies in the CSI Program, but above all, a tool to support sustainable corporate governance, help Vietnamese companies to fulfill their accountability more effectively. In particular, the CSI 2024 Program is a “dynamic” index, constantly updated and adapted to regulatory compliance regulations that they must pay attention to, or new global trends.

Mr. Binu Jacob, Managing Director of Nestlé Vietnam, Co-Chair of VBCSD, emphasized that sustainability commitments need to be accompanied with a clear roadmap and sufficient investments for that roadmap, innovation, transformation and cooperation at all levels to achieve successful sustainable development. He said, CSI 100 has brought together businesses that pursue sustainable development by providing a clear picture of achievements to be promoted, limitations to be addressed, and most importantly, the direction ahead to be reached.

The CSI 2024 has been revamped with new constituents: It is now organized into six segments, a reduction from the seven in preceding editions. The index encompasses 153 indicators, with core indicators constituting 62% and advanced indicators making up the remaining 38%. Each indicator is designated to represent a specific content, thereby simplifying the process for prospective companies to catalog and disseminate information. The predominance of core indicators signifies that the pursuit of sustainable development is not an arduous or distant goal for businesses. By merely ensuring regulatory compliance, a company can already establish a robust foundation for sustainable development.

More changes are seen in the environment section. Specifically, CSI 2024 significantly increases the “quantification” level of indicators, which means adding more quantitative indicators, especially environmental indicators. Moreover, environmental indicators are also more clearly divided into two groups: “Compliance” - core indicators and “initiative” - advanced indicators. These changes not only help the Judging Board of the CSI 2024 Program to assess and give a more accurate score of sustainability efforts of candidate companies but also help them approach environmental management issues more conveniently.

Moreover, the most notable improvement in the CSI 2024 Program is to categorize candidate companies into three industries: manufacturing, trade - service, and mixed (including two above industries). Depending on industry, the weight of the economic, environmental and social contents will be different, suitable for sector-specific characteristics and business activities of candidate companies, thus guaranteeing equitable scoring.

In the year 2024, the program will welcome submissions from enterprises of all scales and industries through an online platform, with no associated fees for the candidates. Beyond the ranking and announcement of the top 100 sustainable companies, the CSI 2024 Program also confers accolades to honor trailblazing companies in the development of the circular economy, reduction of carbon emissions, and those leading the charge in fostering diversity, equity, and inclusivity. The Organizing Committee discloses the scoring rubric for each section and domain, thereby facilitating businesses in gauging their efforts and juxtaposing them with the results declared by the Judging Panel.

Following the launching event, the Program Organizing Committee will organize offline/online training courses on sustainable corporate governance in general and on how to apply the CSI Index to corporate governance in particular from June to August 2024.

The deadline for submitting applications is August 16, 2024. For more information about the CSI 2024 Program, please refer to the website http://vbcsd.vn/csi.asp.

Huong Giang (Vietnam Business Forum)