Issue 23 - December 2006

News

• Leading economist releases report on the future economics of climate change
• Sir Nicholas Stern, a former chief economist at the World Bank, has published a report concluding that unless drastic measures are taken to combat climate change, the world could be facing enormous economic, environmental and social risks.
• ACCA UK Awards for Sustainability Reporting 2006 - shortlist announced
• Following a shortlisting judges meeting, the 15 finalist entrants were announced in October 2006. More than 80 organisations submitted reports this year, including over 10 SMEs and a number of first-timers. Four SMEs have made the shortlist – this number has not been matched since 2003. The shortlist presents a wide range of sector industries, including mining, oil and telecommunications. The media and utilities sector as well as social enterprises are also represented.
• ACCA South Africa hosts its annual Sustainability Reporting Awards
• The awards were first launched in South Africa in 2002 and this year were held in Johannesburg. There was a 30% increase in submissions this year, to 30 reporting organisations and three awards were given out for Best Sustainability Report, Most Improved Report, and Best Newcomer.
• ACCA Malaysia involved in new network of organisations called CSR Malaysia
• The aim of the network is to increase CSR awareness and promote best practice among companies. Chaired by Datuk Johan Raslan, executive chairman of PwC Malaysis, the network also provides a platform for knowledge and information sharing between corporates, academia and government.
• Launch of the new G3 Guidelines
• October 2006 saw the launch of the long awaited G3 Guidelines at the GRI conference in Amsterdam. The sell out event had around 1,000 participants from 65 countries, 161 speakers and international media coverage with 75 news articles in around 150 newspapers, magazines and websites in 30 countries.
• UN Global Compact aligns with GRI
• At the launch of the new G3 Guidelines, the UN Global Compact announced the alliance by releasing a tool, entitled “Making the Connection: Using GRI’s G3 Reporting Guidelines for the UN Global Compact’s Communication on Progress.”
• UK sees first bill to require CSR reporting
• The UK, for the first time, has passed a bill requiring mandatory reporting on business’ social and environmental performance. This is the largest bill ever to have passed through Commons and is seen as a very positive step by the CSR community.
• Two new reporting registers launched
• CorporateRegister.com, the world's largest directory of sustainability reports, has partnered with the two most significant corporate citizenship initiatives to provide two complimentary reporting resources: the GRI Register and the AA1000AS Register. The registers are easy to use – no login is required and access is free.
• Global Compact de-lists 335 laggard companies
• The UN has taken its most decisive action yet on non-active members of its Global Compact, by taking off 335 signatories that have failed for at least years to supply a statement, or communication of progress.
• New German Policy Paper on CSR - Recommendations to Government and Business
• The German Business Council for Sustainable Development has prepared a paper on CSR for the German government and trade and industry. It contains a set of recommendations for advancing the corporate policy of sustainability development.
• Eight global utility companies meet to discuss the world’s future energy situation
• These eight companies, along with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development met in NYC to release a report called “Powering a Sustainable Future”, which contains an "agenda for concerted action" to secure future electricity generation, to bring more power to more people and to decrease the industry's greenhouse gas emissions.
• New reports published
• A comprehensive list of the latest reports published is provided by CorporateRegister.com
• GRI Update
• A summary of GRI activity in the last quarter.

New publications

• Accountability Rating 2006
• The results of the 2006 Accountability Rating ®, a research report carried out by csrnetwork and AccountAbility, have been published. The study looks at the accountability of some of the world’s largest companies by revenue, using any publicly available information. It analyses business’ performance in six key domains: stakeholder engagement, strategy, governance, performance management, assurance and public disclosure and draws on existing reporting frameworks, including the AA1000.
• Tomorrow’s Value - The Global Reporters 2006 Survey of Corporate Sustainability Reporting
• This report, carried out by SustainAbility, in partnership with UNEP and Standard and Poor’s, ranks the leading corporate reporters from around the world. This year’s study finds the leading reporters taking a more sophisticated approach to identifying and reporting on material issues and better linking to core business processes within companies. The report especially looks at whether (and how well) the link between sustainability and wider market opportunities is understood by companies.
• Better assurance starts with better understanding
• This report, published by KPMG Sustainability (Netherlands), was launched at the G3 launch event held in Amsterdam. KPMG hosted an assurance panel discussion, looking at the questions raised by different stakeholders on assurance and the report looks to increase the understanding of assurance and progress on the discussion concerning the subject.
• Getting the message - a snapshot of company reporting in Australia
• ACCA Australia has published a research report looking at how leading Australian companies are currently approaching both financial and sustainability reporting. Given the focus on corporate responsibility and reporting, as well as the introduction of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in Australia , this report is a timely look at how Australian organisations approach financial and sustainability reporting.
• Excellence in Sustainability Reporting 2006
• This report, published by Ernst and Young South Africa and adjudicated by the University of Johannesburg, looked at the standards of sustainability reporting in South Africa (in the JSE Limited’s SRI Index), using G3 as one of the guides for assessing performance.
• The Materiality Report - Aligning Strategy, Performance and Reporting
• This report, published by AccountAbility in association with BT and LRQA, is a piece of research looking into the issue of materiality and provides a toolkit for organisations to work out which issues are ‘material’ to their underlying performance, and encourages business to focus on these issues in their public reporting.
• Climate Change and Insurance - An Agenda for Action in the United States
• This report, authored by Allianz Group and WWF, states that the insurance industry should do more to address the growing impact of climate change-induced damages.
• International business attitudes to corruption - survey 2006
• This research report, published by the security firm Control Risks and Simmons & Simmons, concludes that corruption continues to be a huge international issue for companies. 350 senior executives from 7 different were interviewed for the study and it found that overall, businesses in Hong Kong were the most affected by corruption, with UK firms experiencing the least.
• First Carbon Disclosure Project Report Focused On Asia
• The 1st Round of the CDP Process in Asia has been officially launched with the publication by ASrIA (The Association for Sustainable & Responsible Investment in Asia ) of the first CDP Report at a well attended event in Hong Kong. The ASrIA launch co-incided with other official launches of CDP4 reports in the US, Europe and Japan.

Events

• International Conference on Sustainability, 4-7 January 2007, University of Madras, Chennai, India
• Corporate Social Responsibility - the business case, 30 January 2007, 2.30pm, London
• ACCA UK Awards for Sustainability Reporting 2006 ceremony - 1 March 2007, London
• Ethical Corporation Climate Change conference 7-8 March 2007, London
• Informa Life Sciences’ conference on Environmental Liability Directive 13-14 March 2007, London
• Business in the Environment Programme UK Senior Executives’ seminar 17-20 April 2007, Cambridge
• CERES conference - Advancing Sustainable Prosperity, 25-26 April 2007, Boston
• Sustainabilitylive!, 1-3 May 2007, Birmingham
• TBLI SRI Asia Conference - 24-25 May 2007, Bankgkok
• Environmental Management Accounting Network Europe Conference - 24-25 May 2007, Helsinki