TWO businesses were recognised for being sustainable in their operations by being the first recipients of the Women Invigorating the Nation Convention 2025 (WIN 2025) Green Star Awards at the Grand Pacific Hotel on Saturday night.
Tikosaya Ledua of Ledua Art Collections and Shajit Bala of Be Pro Marketing Fiji were the first to receive this recognition since the launch of the awards at last year’s WIN by the Women Entrepreneurs Business Council (WEBC), the organisers of the annual event.
In an interview with this newspaper, WIN organising committee chairperson Sharyne Fong highlighted envisioning the Green Star awards as a national event.
“In 2023, we decided to undertake a requirement to establish a policy mainly around sustainable business practices, so we engaged a couple of our members in that space doing consultancy and it was approved and known as the green policy.
“In 2024, we decided ‘look we got this policy, what more can we do?’, and we knew that our members were already being sustainable.
“That gave us an idea and then we came up with, okay, next year which is this year we will recognise and award our members for being sustainable businesses,” Ms Fong said
Speaking to this newspaper, an emotional Ms Ledua expressed her gratitude for the recognition.
“I have been a member of WEBC since 2022 when my business was established and I am thankful for a platform like WEBC that recognises where I started from,” she said.
“I am grateful to the committee for recognising us small buisinesses and giving us a platform to network and grow our businesses.
“This is a huge milestone for a small business like myself and I am really grateful to FCEF for creating a platform such as this.”
NOTE: This article was first published in the print edition of the Fiji Times dated MARCH 31, 2025.
