Best Corporate Governance and ESG Awards 2025

The Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants (“Institute”) is proud to be launching the 25th Anniversary Best Corporate Governance and ESG Awards (“Awards”).

The Awards highlight the continuing importance of good corporate governance (“CG”) and environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) reporting and practices for listed companies (“companies”) and public sector/ not-for-profit organizations (“PSOs”), and their investors and stakeholders, and they encourage organizations to integrate CG and ESG considerations into their values, strategies and operations.

Key objectives of the Awards are:

• To promote greater awareness and appreciation of the value of implementing good CG and ESG
• To encourage improvements in the standard of CG and ESG disclosures and practices, and the integration of good CG and ESG into organizations’ values, strategies and operations
• To recognize organizations that set the benchmarks of quality in terms of their CG and ESG disclosures and practices
  

Starting from their inception in 2000, the Awards have established objective and authoritative benchmarks for Hong Kong’s CG disclosure and reporting standards, in both the private and public sectors and, since 2011, this has been extended to recognizing excellence in ESG performance. For individual organizations, meanwhile, winning an award has become a much-sought-after accolade and a highly-prized measure of achievement.

The Awards focus primarily on voluntary practices and disclosures that clearly exceed the minimum legal and regulatory requirements, as demonstrated in organizations’ annual reports and sustainability/ ESG reports.

The Institute is grateful for the invaluable support for the Awards received from a wide range of stakeholders, including the HKSAR Government, financial market regulators, investor groups, professional associations and firms, the business community and academia. They are named as Supporting Organizations and provide expert judges and reviewers to assist with the evaluations and final judging. We are also grateful to our Financial Sponsors whose generous support helps to fund the competition, while reflecting their endorsement of the objectives of the Awards, as well as the reputation and standing of the Awards in the Hong Kong market. Past award winners themselves have included many of Hong Kong’s major listed companies and public sector organizations. This year, for the first time, the Institute is collaborating with an artificial intelligence service provider in the initial screening stage of the process and we also wish to acknowledge their support.

Features of the Awards for this year include:

• The Awards’ top level of accolades, the Most Sustainable Organizations (“MSO”) Awards, give equal weighting CG and ESG and will be presented to those organizations that demonstrate the highest standards in both areas, and which are moving towards fuller integration of CG and ESG considerations into their practices and reporting. Diamond, Platinum and Gold Awards, as well as Special Mentions, are available in this part of the competition, to reflect different levels of achievement.
  
  
• Below the MSO Awards, there are separate awards for CG and ESG, to recognize organizations that demonstrate a high-quality performance specifically in CG or ESG. Winners in this section will be eligible for a Special Mention in either CG or ESG. The changes to HKEX’s Corporate Governance Code (“CG Code”), and the Environmental, Social and Governance Reporting Code (“ESG Code”) in recent years, and the additional climate-related disclosures required under the latter, for reporting periods commencing on or after 1 January 2025, make it clear that these are both essential areas. We hope, therefore, that the increased prominence given to the MSO Awards will encourage more organizations to give equal attention to their CG and ESG performances to enable them to compete in that section of the Awards.
  
  
• In addition, this year, the Institute will also review companies that listed on the Main Board between 2022 to 2025, aiming to give recognition to recently-listed companies that have performed well in their CG and/ or ESG practices and disclosures.
  
  
• Further, a separate section of the Awards will be created for “Elite Past Winners”, which refers to listed companies that have been recognized five or more times over the past 10 years. These companies will be judged alongside their peers.

Note:

Awards will be offered in the following main categories:

Listed companies

(i)     Large Market Capitalization (“Large Cap”) – HSI-constituent companies and non-HSI-constituent companies in the Hang Seng Composite

         LargeCap – Index

(ii)    Medium Cap - Companies in Hang Seng Composite MidCap – Index

(iii)   Small Cap - Companies in Hang Seng Composite SmallCap – Index

(iv)   Newly Listed Companies (listed on the Main Board between 2022 and 2025)

Public sector / Not-for-profit organizations

(v)    Large

(vi)   Small and medium

In addition to introducing other changes and new features, the Institute regularly reviews assessment criteria, in the light of changes in local regulations, relevant international developments and the evolving expectations of the community.The Institute has published Hong Kong sustainability disclosure standards (“HKFRS SDS”), i.e. HKFRS S1General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information and HKFRS S2Climate-related Disclosures, which are fully aligned with the IFRS SDS and which will be effective on 1 August 2025 (on a voluntary basis); and with effect from 1 January 2025, the ESG Code (Appendix C2 of the Listing Rules) requires issuers to make climate-related disclosures in phases. Changes will also be implemented in the CG Code (Appendix C1 of the Listing Rules), commencing 1 July 2025, with phasing in of some of the new requirements. As a result of these developments, certain refinements have been introduced into the Awards’ review criteria for 2025.

Among the other specific focus areas in 2025, the Awards will also examine what organizations are doing in terms of their cyber security governance. This was a new area introduced into the criteria last year, which cuts across both CG and ESG, emphasizing how these two aspects of performance need to be integrated and ingrained in an organization’s culture. The judges of the Awards have previously noted that, ultimately, effective ESG cannot be achieved without a high standard of CG, nor can good CG be separated from sound ESG.

Entry Procedure

The judging criteria and application process are explained in the brochure (see the icons at the top of this page) inviting entries for the Awards. There is no fee for entering Awards 2025, and there are opportunities for recognition to be achieved and reputations to be enhanced. The submission deadline is 24 July 2025.

Background

• The Awards brochure provides further information about how candidates will be assessed for the different kinds of awards.
• The Judges' Reports for reporting years indicated below (click on the relevant link) contain the results, as observations on the standard of CG and ESG in Hong Kong and other information:

• 2000

• 2010

• 2020

• 2001

• 2011

• 2021

• 2002

• 2012

• 2022

• 2003

• 2013

• 2023

• 2004

• 2014

• 2024

• 2005

• 2015

• 2006

• 2016

• 2007

• 2017

• 2008

• 2018

• 2009

• 2019