CPA Australia was recently awarded the National Award for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in an Association or Government Meeting of the Year. The award recognised the implementation of CSR initiatives in the organisation and throughout CPA Congress 2008.
The award was presented at the Meeting and Events Industry Awards night held on Tuesday 20 April in Melbourne.
Congress 2008 took many CSR initiatives from using local produce, re-using stage sets across events, supplying all session papers online to supplying recycled bamboo USB sticks for delegates to download conference papers. The Congress agenda also had a strong CSR flavour including keynotes from Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) chief executive, Ernst Ligteringen and GRI chairman, Mervyn King.
CPA Australia was the first professional accounting body to measure their carbon footprint and produce the findings in their sustainability report in 2008. This has allowed the organisation to continue to manage and reduce major emissions in the areas of travel, energy, catering and printing.
CPA Congress 2008 also contributed to CPA Australia's CSR strategy by supporting the three pillars of social responsibility:
- profession - to enhance knowledge exchange and be leaders in CSR, sessions and the CSR online community
- organisation - being proactive and conscious of CSR strategies when planning CPA Congress
- community - providing free community information sessions with a range of influential business leaders who shared their knowledge
The combination of these initiatives has developed foundations for CSR strategies to be used again in future CPA Congress events
Left to right: Carolyn Curnow, Helen Mitchell, Anja Nikolic, Rob Thomason, Carolyn Morfitt, Sheena Sudra, Zena McManus, Rochelle Dunne.