Vice President Jusuf Kalla handed over the Corporate Performance Appraisal in Environmental Management award in the Golden category for 2017 to 19 companies in the Vice Presidential Palace in Jakarta, on Monday.

"I would like to congratulate all of you who have obtained the award, as well as the golden ones. This, of course, has given hope to all of us for better discipline in environmental management as the years go on," he stated during his opening speech.

According to Kalla, discipline in environmental management should be carried out by all companies as it is very important. In addition to providing efficiency, it is also beneficial to the public, which has become their consumers.

Furthermore, the vice president explained that companies, much like the government, need to pay attention to three matters that have became the concern of the world, namely democratization, human rights, and environmental sustainability.

"When there is an authoritarian system, all nations will be angry; if there are violations of human rights, the world will condemn and issue punishments. Lastly, the world will pay attention to how we preserve the environment, both in natural and industrial contexts, "he pointed out.

The Golden category of the 2017 Proper Awards were given by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry to PT Pertamina and its subsidiaries (11 awards), PT Pupuk Kaltim, PT Aneka Tambang Gold Mining unit, PT Tirta Investama, PT Biofarma, PT Bukit Asam Tanjung Enim, PT Star Energy, PT Badak NGL, and PT Medco Rimau Assets.

In addition to the golden category, the ministry also provided green category evaluations to 150 companies and blue category evaluations to 1,486 companies.

Meanwhile, out of the 1,819 companies that were sampled by the ministry in the assessment, 130 were still in the red category, and 1 company in Purbalingga, Central Java, fell in the black category

Source: ANTARA