The CR Reporting Awards 20124 min read

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The winners of the 5th annual CR Reporting Awards (CRRA’12) were announced at a reception at the Royal Society in London on April 19th. These awards recognise the very best in corporate responsibility reporting, and are the only independent, global annual awards of their type.

The CRRA are managed by CorporateRegister.com, the CR resources website and provider of the world’s largest online directory of CR (corporate responsibility) Reports. The CRRA identify and acknowledge the best CR reports and reward quality disclosure as a contribution to the raising of global reporting standards.

The CRRA’12 Call for Entries attracted 93 reports from 27 countries, all published between September 2011 and September 2012.

As in previous years, the reports were entered across nine reporting categories. Here are the winners:

Best Overall Report + Best Carbon Disclosure

Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc – View .pdf (4,91MB)

This is Coca-Cola Enterprises’ (CCE) sixth annual corporate responsibility and sustainability (CRS) report and its first as a European business. In October 2010, CCE completed a transaction with The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC), acquiring their bottling operations in Norway and Sweden and selling its North American operations to TCCC. This report shows that CRS remains at the forefront of the company’s priorities in Europe, sets a baseline for future reporting of CRS progress, and looks to the future, discussing the views of European stakeholders on how it should shape its CRS commitments and targets to be a sustainability leader.

Best First Time Report

La Trobe University – View .pdf (5,66MB)

With the release in April 2011 of La Trobe University’s inaugural sustainability report Responsible Futures, they became one of only a few universities worldwide that have reported in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G3 framework. Responsible Futures was the world’s first university sustainability report to be externally assured to AA1000 standards and follows the appointment of Australia’s first Pro Vice-Chancellor (Sustainability) by La Trobe University in 2010.

Best SME report

BeyondBusiness – View PDF (6,91MB)

Best SME report Subtitled “How a little Consulting Firm makes a Big Impact”, this is a first-time report of an SME Sustainability Consulting and Reporting firm. This report is interesting because it demonstrates how a small business can embrace a sustainability approach and make a valuable contribution beyond the limits of its immediate, limited, resources as well as managing core operations sustainably, including, for example, achieving carbon neutrality.

Best integrated report

Novo Nordisk A/S – View PDF (5,30MB)

Since 2004, Novo Nordisk has been reporting on its performance in an integrated format to reflect the company’s objective to ‘strive to conduct our activities in a financially, environmentally and socially responsible way’.

Novo Nordisk’s 2010 Annual Report showcases the evolution of our integrated reporting journey.

Creativity in Communications

The Walt Disney Company – View PDF (23,88MB)

This report is the company’s second corporate citizenship report, demonstrating a strong evolution in our approach to embedding citizenship in our day-to-day business. Highlights from the report include:The company’s first set of comprehensive citizenship commitments and goals, aligned around three core principles; Investment of $15.5 million in carbon offset projects around the world as part of Disney’s Climate Solutions Fund, the Company’s internal carbon pricing program; Detailed data and progress updates on Disney’s supply chain and environmental footprint and Corporate charitable contributions of $198 million, and more than 548,000 hours of VoluntEAR service contributed by Disney employees.

Relevance & Materiality + Openness & Honesty

Marks and Spencer plc – View PDF (3,40MB)

Since the launch of the Plan A sustainability programme in 2007 Marks and Spencer plc published an annual update in the “How We Do Business Report” on progress against all 100 commitments and 180 since 2010.

So far, they achieved 95 out of the 180 commitments, 77 are on plan, one is on hold and 7 are behind plan.

This includes an absolute reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 13% (25% improved when indexed), 94% diversion from landfill, 26% reduction in packaging,  helping to collect 3 million used garments for Oxfam as well as opening the world’s first 100% Forestry Stewardship Council certified ‘build and fit-out’ store in Sheffield. M&S were also the world’s biggest retailer of Fairtrade cotton clothing and distributed 38,000 home energy monitors to employees.

Credibility through Assurance

Co-operative Group Limited – View PDF (6.13MB)

The Co-operative is one of the world’s largest consumer co-operatives, operating food retail, financial services, funeralcare and pharmacy businesses in the UK. It has nearly 110,000 employees and is owned by more than six million members. The Co-operative has been reporting and leading innovations in the sustainability field for over a decade (e.g. first business to adopt the AA1000 framework). Today, it continues to push boundaries and publish information rarely disclosed by other businesses. For example, the Report outlines all activity to influence government and public policy on sustainability, every single instance of finance declined on ethical grounds, and progress on improvement actions identified for developing world suppliers. The approach is very much ‘warts and all’; The Co-operative does not shy away from reporting instances where performance has fallen short of expectations.

More about The CR Reporting Awards 2012

Voting was open to all 38,000 registered users of CorporateRegister.com. This online community represents a global audience of highly informed stakeholders and CR report readers: corporate CR professionals, CR consultants, CR organisations, government authorities, investors, analysts, NGOs, charities, journalists, academics and students.