Six companies from different sectors and three young humanitarians were crowned with the 3rd Bangladesh Sustainability Excellence Awards for their sustainable and socially impactful initiatives.
The Daily Star and the CSR Window Bangladesh honoured the firms in order to encourage corporates and individuals to take project that serve the society and the planted as well.
Unilever Bangladesh's Plastic Circularity for a Sustainable Bangladesh project won the award in the environment category, while Bata Shoe Company's (Bangladesh) Bata Children's' program bagged the top award in the education segment.
LafargeHolcim initiative Integrated support in Chhatak Community took home the accolade in the Community Engagement, while Shanta Holdings' Ashulia women & children hospital won the award in the healthcare category.
The Bangladesh Sustainability Excellence Awards in Financial Inclusion went to Grameenphone for its GP Accelerator and GP Academy, while Banglalink Digital Communication won the award in the Disaster Response category. 
Three young changemakers were also awarded as the Young Humanitarian of the Year: Arifur Rahman Shihab founder of Bhalo Kaajer Hotel; Lamia Tanzim Tanha founder and CEO of TransEnd and Arian Arif founder of Mojar School.
Syed Manzur Elahi, chairman of Syed Manzur Elahi Enterprise handed over the awards to the winners at a ceremony held at Le Méridien Dhaka, the hospitality partner for the event.
"Sustainability is a part of the SDG and this is very important," said Syed Manzur Elah. 
He thanked the daily star for the initiative. 
Mahfuz Anam, editor and publisher of The Daily Star, said the word sustainability should be compared with the word survival.
"When we talk about sustainability, we actually talk about our survival, he said, "Sustainability is saving life. We are talking about sustainability of the planet," he said.