NWDS’ Holistic Corporate Development Garners Multiple Awards
New World Department Store China Limited (“NWDS” or the “Company”; Hong Kong stock code: 825), one of the largest owners and operators of department stores in Mainland China, is pleased to announce that it has garnered multiple honors in the aspects of overall corporate performance, environmental protection and corporate communications. The Company has won the “Gold Award” in The Asset Corporate Awards 2014 for the first time, and was awarded the “Green Office” label from the “Green Office Awards Labelling Scheme” organized by the World Green Organization for two consecutive years. Furthermore, the Company’s revamped website has won the“Honor” award in the “Relaunch/Redesign – Retail” category in the 2014 iNova Awards. These awards exemplifies that the Company’s outstanding performance in holistic development is well acknowledged by different sectors in society.
The Asset Corporate Awards 2014 is organized by an authoritative regional media, The Asset magazine. Assessment criteria applied include a range of metrics on companies’ financial performance, as well as their performance in corporate governance, social responsibility, environmental responsibility and investor relations in view of the growing importance of corporate sustainable development. NWDS’ outstanding performance in these related areas helped the Company to win the Gold Award in the category of “Financial Performance, Corporate Governance and Environment Responsibility”. This proves that the Company manages to strike a good balance between its financial and sustainability performance to deliver desirable financial and sustainability returns to its shareholders and stakeholders.
Organized by the World Green Organization, the “Green Office Awards Labelling Scheme” aims to evaluate the green practices of the participating enterprises based on their performance in energy saving, water saving, waste reduction, paper saving, green procurement, etc, and to provide them with environmental training and advices to further increase the efficiency of their green policies. NWDS’ Hong Kong Office has actively implemented a series of carbon reduction policies, for example, encouraging staff to switch off unnecessary lighting and computer screens, giving priorities to environment-friendly suppliers and reducing the amount of printing in order to save paper. As a result, the Company has received the “Green Office” label and the UNMDG’s “Better World Company” label for two consecutive years.
The 2014 iNova Awards, organized by US-based MerComm, Inc, aims to recognize corporate websites with innovative design and excellent functions. The judging panel, which is comprised of world’s leading internet experts, selects outstanding company websites based on criteria such as concept, creativity, ease of navigation, design, functionality and efficiency in achieving company’s goals. NWDS has fully renovated its company website in January 2014 with simplicity design style, clear navigation menu and enriched content from the newly-created “Corporate Sustainability” page. In view of the increasing popularity of smartphones and tablets, the revamped website was built in responsive web design that webpages can be adjusted in response to the size of viewing screen in different devices to make browsing more convenient. The Company’s website has won the“Honor” award in the “Relaunch/Redesign – Retail” category in the 2014 iNova Awards.
Ms. Rebecca Woo, Corporate Affairs Director and Chairman of Sustainable Steering Committee of NWDS, said, “It is an honor for us to garner three awards across different areas, which exemplifies that we have achieved a holistic corporate development. We pledge to enhance our business performance to create the best returns for our shareholders while concurrently taking good care of our sustainability development such as implementing low carbon and environment friendly policies and enhancing communication channels with stakeholders in order to foster an interactive communication, which helps perfect our policies for excellence continuously.”