Business Council Congratulates Watercare

The Business Council Congratulates Watercare on Winning the ACCA’s 2004 Sustainability Reporting Awards

New Zealand utility Watercare Services has featured as award winner for the second successive year in this year’s ACCA Australia and NZ Sustainability Reporting Awards.

Watercare was awarded the winner of the Best Sustainability Report category by the panel of independent judges, while BHP Billiton was runner up in the section. Watercare was a joint winner in this category last year, while BHP won the award for environmental reporting.

Sydney based Insurance Australia Group (IAG) and superannuation provider VicSuper were joint winners of the award for Best First Time Reporter, while carmaker Toyota was commended for the design and accuracy of its report.

This year marks the third annual ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) Sustainability Reporting awards for Australasia, which occur in concert with similar ACCA sustainability awards held in 20 other countries in Europe, North America, Africa and the Asia Pacific.

This year’s Australasian awards attracted a record 34 entries, up from 33 last year.

Lyn Mayes, Communications Manager for the Business Council and the New Zealand representative on the panel of 9 judges, congratulated Watercare Services for the high standard of their reporting: “Their report departs from the standard environmental, social and economic paradigm in an intelligent and refreshing way which demonstrates very original thinking about sustainability, competing pressures and reporting.

“The judges agreed that the report evidences high-level consideration of the risks and opportunities across the business and utlilises “performance rulers” as an innovative and clear way of demonstrating performance against targets.”

Business Council members congratulated Watercare Services at a Council Dinner in Auckland last night where guest speaker John Elkington, described by Business Week as “a dean of the corporate responsibility movement for three decades”, talked about the latest trends in Sustainability reporting globally.

ENDS

More about the NZ Business Council for Sustainable Development

The Business Council’s starting position is that a business needs to be profitable in order to be sustainable. Sustainable business also needs to be sensitive to the needs of their employees and to the communities in which they operate and to minimise their impact on natural resources. Business Council members employ over 50,000 New Zealanders across North and South Islands. Based on the average family size of 3, this means it is directly responsible for the livelihoods of almost 150,000 people or 4% of the population. However its real impact is much bigger as many businesses are reliant on member companies as trading partners in local communities.

Membership is by invitation but interested companies are welcome to approach the Business Council. Members pay a turnover related membership fee. Membership requires CEOs to directly engage in the activities of the Council.

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