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Ford and Timberland Win Ceres-ACCA North American Awards for Best Sustainability Reporting

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Ford Motor Company and The Timberland Company received the top sustainability reporting awards today in an international competition organized by the Boston-based Ceres coalition and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). The winners, selected from 87 nominations, also included Calgary, Alberta-based Suncor Energy and Austin, TX-based Dell, Inc. The four winners were announced at the Ceres annual conference today at Boston’s Renaissance Harbor Hotel. A complete judges’ report was also released today which is available at www.ceres.org/reportingawards.

The 7th annual Ceres-ACCA North American awards program, sponsored this year by Weber Shandwick’s Planet 2050, is designed to highlight best practices in reporting on sustainability issues by North American companies and other organizations, and to provide guidance to other groups and companies that are publishing or intend to publish sustainability or corporate social responsibility reports.

“The Ceres-ACCA Awards reward transparency by giving recognition to organizations that report environmental and social performance in the most complete and credible way. We do not reward rhetoric,” said Mindy S. Lubber, president of Ceres, a national coalition of investors, companies, and environmental groups. “These reports articulate ambitious goals, make the business case for sustainability, discuss areas for improvement, and reflect the feedback - both laudatory and critical - of key external stakeholders.”

“As stakeholders grow increasingly savvy in their understanding of sustainability issues, they’re also increasingly demanding about the quality of CSR information they expect from companies,” said Jeff Swartz, Timberland’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “We work hard to ensure that we’re providing current, relevant and transparent communications to our stakeholders, and we’re honored to receive this important recognition of our efforts.”

This year there were 87 entries from Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. From these, 21 entries were short-listed, including Gap, Inc., Hewlett-Packard, Starbucks, Nike, and Weyerhaeuser.

The winners were selected by a 12-person independent panel of judges representing a broad spectrum of backgrounds in the nonprofit, corporate and investment worlds. The judging criteria focused on completeness, credibility, and effectiveness of communication.

This year’s award winners are:

Best Sustainability Report (co-winner)

Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, Michigan
The 2006/07 Sustainability Report from Ford clearly identifies the material sustainability issues affecting the company, including climate change, human rights, sustainable mobility in emerging markets and safety. The report discloses the greenhouse gas emissions of Ford’s fleet and benchmarks tailpipe emissions per vehicle against industry averages. It also communicates well through both an online and print report; the printed copy encourages reader to learn more online and the website provides an easy-to-navigate format.

Best Sustainability Report (co-winner)

The Timberland Company, Stratham, New Hampshire
Timberland’s 2006 Corporate Social Responsibility Report provides a comprehensive dashboard of key performance indicators and trends that illustrate progress to date on existing goals and sets new goals for the following year. It discusses Timberland’s influence on its supply chain with strong disclosure on factory location, factory growth, and the company’s monitoring, assessment and remediation program. In addition, it provides a thoughtful discussion of how the company is encouraging responsible action among its customers by providing product-specific sustainability information, and shares external feedback on Timberland’s material issues through extensive stakeholder quotes and commentary.

Commendation for Climate Change Reporting

Suncor Energy, Inc., Calgary, Alberta, Canada
The 2007 Report on Sustainability from oil sands producer Suncor highlights the strategic importance of climate change for the company by highlighting the risks and opportunities the company faces. The report describes the management accountability structure for addressing climate change at Suncor, from the board of directors down, and discloses comprehensive and detailed carbon emissions data, both historical and forward-looking, on each of the company’s primary business areas.

Commendation for Product Stewardship Reporting

Dell Inc., Austin, Texas
Dell’s sustainability report provided notable discussion about how the company is working to integrate sustainability considerations into the design, manufacture and recovery of its products. It details Dell’s Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) process and the company’s recovery, reuse, and recycling efforts, including global recycling and environmental standards, consumer recycling and donation programs, and commercial asset recovery services.

Source: CSR Wire