Coimbatore. SIERRA ODC has been awarded the Excellence in Environment Management at the CII-ITC Sustainability Awards 2019 during a virtual awards ceremony which happened today. Shri Prakash Javedkar, Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Minister of Information and Broadcasting and Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises delivered the felicitation message via a video.

SIERRA has been selected under the SME category for its excellence in environment management. For the record, SIERRA ODC’s headquarters eFACiLiTY® in Coimbatore is the world’s second-highest ranking Green Building rated by GBCI under LEED NC v2009 and IGBC new building system. It continues to be a model building in terms of sustainability and environment management.

EFQM Excellence Framework
Uniquely based on the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Excellence Framework, these Awards are designed for those who strive effortlessly to make sustainability their business. The assessment has around 250 indicators covering 15 aspects of sustainability and been made more comprehensive to include aspects such as Business Ethics, Employee Development, Human Rights and Biodiversity.

The assessment spread over six months is done by a pool of CII-Certified Sustainability Assessors from diverse professional backgrounds who spend approximately 1,000 man-hours per application. The results of each assessment are reviewed by a preeminent Jury, in two stages before arriving at the final decision. Post assessment, a detailed Feedback Report to every applicant is provided to help the organisations get insights to improve their sustainability performance.

A prestigious award with a rigorous assessment process and tough competition in terms of participation, it has only a handful of entries post first level assessment.

This award also puts SIERRA in the company of some of India’s most respectable names like TATAs, Aditya Birla, Reliance, Hero Motors, Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra, and L&amp;T, etc.

Mr. Giridhar JG, CEO of SIERRA ODC during the acceptance speech.

“We are a software product company based out of Coimbatore. Our development center named eFACiLiTY® is today the world’s second highest ranking Green Building rated under the USGBC LEED rating system and also the Indian Green Building Councils new building rating system. We wanted to break the myth that green buildings are expensive to build. So after the project, we felt that we have succeeded in doing that and hence started sharing all our learning for others to replicate. “

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-9502" src="https://www.sierratec.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/CII-ITC-Sustainability-Awards.jpg" alt="CII ITC Sustainability Awards" width="1080" height="831" />

“Till date about 5000 people covering experts, consultants, students and general public have visited our Green Building and have learned about sustainability, climate change, green building and how they can contribute to combatting global warming. At this very challenging times of the covid-19 pandemic, being recognised by the most respected CII ITC Sustainability Awards is like a booster shot for our sustainability initiatives. We have received many awards in the last few years, but the rigorous process followed for this award and the site assessment gave us a lot of insights on what we could do going forward on the sustainability front and it is a very valuable learning experience.”

“The learning helped us start an exclusive module for environmental sustainability to our facility management software product. So the greenhouse gas inventorisation using this will help us monitor, every single emission parameter of our operations enabling us to become a truly net Zero company, and also help other organisations achieve the same. We feel delighted, honoured, and humbled to have won this award. Being a humble MSME company we feel very proud to be sharing the stage with top companies of India that too for a sustainability initiative, our sincere thanks to the assessors, the jury and CII for selecting us for this award. I also wish to thank my entire team SIERRA and other partners who made this possible. My sincere thanks to you all.”

The awards committee in its report hailed SIERRA for managing all the aspects of green infrastructure at their premises and the product of similar nature is being prepared by organisation as their flagship product. It termed this as one of the best examples of "walk the talk".

It also commended SIERRA for using state-of-the-art technology to manage all the aspects of the environment in their building, adding its technology helps manage, monitor, and measure all the different aspects e.g. Energy, Water, Lighting, Transportation, GHG Emissions, Food, Paper, Wood, Chemicals, etc.

CII-ITC Sustainability Awards define the science of sustainability performance. Excellence in sustainability is a journey of continuous improvement in processes and results. In the past 14 years, cumulatively, 953 businesses have applied of which 304 have been recognised. A limited number of applications are accepted to maintain strong competition and high standards of excellence.

About the Award
CII-ITC Sustainability Awards are the only third-party assured Awards in terms of technology, governance, methodology and process.

EFQM Excellence Framework
Uniquely based on the European Foundation for Quality Management Excellence Framework, these Awards are designed for those who strive effortlessly to make sustainability their business.

The Awards adhere to a transparent and rigorous assessment process based on the Sustainability Excellence Assessment Model, developed using the EFQM approach wherein an equal weight is assigned to Enablers and Results.

Assessment is based on around 250 indicators that cover 15 aspects of sustainability. The assessment has been made more comprehensive to include aspects such as Business Ethics, Employee Development, Human Rights and Biodiversity.

The assessment is conducted over six months by a pool of CII-Certified Sustainability Assessors from diverse professional backgrounds that spend approximately 1,000 man-hours per application. The results of each assessment are reviewed by a preeminent Jury, in two stages before arriving at the final decision. Post assessment, a detailed Feedback Report to every applicant is provided to help the organisations get insights to improve their sustainability performance.

Instituted in 2006, the CII-ITC Sustainability Awards recognise and reward excellence in businesses that are seeking ways to be more sustainable and inclusive in their activities. Winners of the Awards are role models that inspire others. The Awards are a part of the continued efforts of CESD to create awareness on sustainability practices and to create capacities in business. More than recognition, the Awards measure performance and provide detailed feedback for opportunities to excel.

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