Blog Archives

Rexam publishes Level 'A' GRI Sustainability Report

9/21/2012

“As we have seen from the Rio+20 discussions, companies are essential to ongoing sustainable development and we a rightly proud to play our part on this global stage” John Revess, Director Group Sustainability, Rexam PLC, said. “With 60 billion cans produced globally annually, Rexam places great importance on sustainability and it is superb recognition that our report has been awarded a level A GRI rating. From eco-design to safety and employee engagement, we work tirelessly to engrain sustainability in our business culture and achieve the stretching targets we have set ourselves.”
More info → www.rexam.com/sustainability

" We trained and worked with Rexam PLC to introduce their commitments to ensuring sustainability across their entire organisation.

Rexam, a leading global consumer packaging company, has launched its first Sustainability Report, which provides level 'A' disclosure of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standard, the most comprehensive sustainability reporting guidelines currently available.

The United Nations (UN) Rio+20 Conference in Brazil, in June 2012, celebrated 20 years since the first UN conference on sustainable development. With consumer packaging playing an integral part in modern living, Rexam has continuously been a leader in this field:

“We are extremely proud of our achievements over the past 20 years” Graham Chipchase, Chief Executive, Rexam PLC, said. “Rexam has a vital role in the packaging supply chain and it is due to the hard work and collaboration with our key stakeholders that we can celebrate our report today. We believe that running our business sustainably is essential to near term success and long term prosperity.”

0 Comments

WHAT INVESTORS AND ANALYSTS SAID” – THE VALUE OF EXTRA-FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE

9/13/2012

0 Comments

“The Prince’s Accounting for Sustainability Project (A4S) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), commissioned Radley Yeldar to undertake research into how investors and analysts source, use and are influenced by extra-financial information. Extra-financial information incorporates a wide range of issues which are likely to have a short, medium or long-term effect on business performance and typically exist beyond the traditional range of variables that are considered as part of investment decision-making processes.

The report shows that extra-financial information – such as disclosures on governance and environmental issues – has become an important and influential consideration for investors and analysts.

Key research findings include:

governance information is the most relevant type of extra-financial information for investors and analysts, with 70% of respondents rating it very relevant
64% of respondents said information on natural resources is very relevant to their analyses of companies
52% say social and community information is very relevant
Comparability of extra-financial information between companies is an issue: 61% said they find social information difficult to compare and 41% said they find environmental information difficult to compare, while only 3% said they find it difficult to compare financial information between companies
Over 80% of investors and analysts believe that integrated reporting will deliver benefits to their analysis or company assessments
Nearly half of investors and analysts (46%) state that direct engagement with the CEO or CFO on extra-financial issues is very likely to influence their investment decisions or company analysis, slightly more so than other corporate reporting channels such as the sustainability report, annual report or integrated report
Voluntary frameworks for reporting extra-financial information play an important role in decision-making and company analysis, especially the GRI Sustainability Reporting Framework and the Carbon Disclosure Project

from → A4S
Download the publication here

0 Comments

Sustainability back to basics

9/11/2012

0 Comments

The Carbon Reduction Commitment
"The CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (formerly called the Carbon Reduction Commitment) is a mandatory UK carbon trading scheme aimed at improving energy efficiency and cutting emissions in large public and private sector organisations which are responsible for around 10% of the UK’s emissions. The scheme, introduced two years ago, requires that all participants — roughly those with annual energy bills of £500,000 plus — measure and report their carbon emissions annually.

They must also buy allowances from government each year to cover their emissions in the previous year.

A publicly available CRC performance league table shows how each participant is performing compared to others in the scheme. There are heavy financial penalties for non-compliance.

The purpose of the CRC was to drive down UK emissions through the application of financial and reputational drivers, but its future is in the balance. The CBI has been campaigning to get the CRC scrapped and the Treasury doesn’t like it either. In June, DECC completed a consultation to try to simplify the scheme to make it easier to comply and we are awaiting publication of the results, but if this proves unworkable it could be scrapped.

Meanwhile, companies that have invested in systems to respond to CRC are concerned that these may have to be changed at considerable expense.

CRC’s forerunner, the voluntary European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS, 2005), is proving more successful. The EU ETS is the largest multi-country, multi-sector greenhouse gas emissions trading system in the world, operating in 30 countries.

Trading terminated in January 2011 due to Cyber theft attacks estimated at more than £23.5m. But new improved systems have been back and operational since June 2012."

Article features in September 2012 addition of Construction Manager
from → Kye Gbangbola

0 Comments