Ceres and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) recently announced the shortlist of candidate reports for the Ceres-ACCA North American Sustainability Reporting Awards for 2008. Of the 99 sustainability reports received, 19 were selected for further consideration by the judges’ panel. The final winners will be announced at an ACCA Canada hosted awards ceremony at the Carlu in downtown Toronto on April 6, 2009 and at Ceres 20th Anniversary Conference at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco on April 15-16, 2009.

Now in its eighth year, the awards program is designed to highlight best practices in reporting on sustainability issues by North American organizations, and to provide guidance to other groups and companies that are publishing or intend to publish sustainability or corporate social responsibility reports.  This year there was an increase in the number of submissions in the first time reporter and small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) categories. Six reports from the two categories made it into the final shortlist.

"In this time of economic duress, it is of utmost importance for companies to both understand and mitigate financial risks, including environmental and social impacts." said Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres. "The Ceres-ACCA reporting awards recognize those companies which not only document their performance, both positive and negative, but also set clear targets for future progress."

"ACCA is encouraged to see a wide range of sectors represented in the shortlist this year, including four first-time reporters," said Paul Costello, head of ACCA Canada and US.  "Recognition of the importance and benefits of sustainability reporting continue to increase and the leadership of these companies provide an example for others to emulate."

The awards are not intended to endorse or reward corporate sustainability performance, but rather to acknowledge exemplary disclosure that places performance in the broader context of sustainability challenges, risks and opportunities. The judging criteria address completeness, credibility and quality of communication. The panel of 11 judges includes North American leaders and experts representing a broad spectrum of backgrounds.

Short-Listed Reports
American Electric Power
Ball Corporation (First Time Reporter)
Baxter
Calvert (SME Reporter)
Catalyst
Dell
GE
Intel
Kinross Gold Corporation (First Time Reporter)
McDonald’s Corporation
Seventh Generation (SME Reporter)
Starbucks
Sunoco
Symantec (First Time Reporter)
Vancity
Vancouver 2010
Weyerhaeuser
Williams (First Time Reporter)
Xcel

For 16 years, ACCA has held annual awards — first in the UK and now in more than 20 countries — to promote transparency in reporting the impact of business activities on sustainable development. Ceres launched the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), which has become the internationally established standard for corporate reporting on the "triple bottom line" of economic, social and environmental performance.

CorporateRegister.com, the world's most comprehensive directory of corporate non-financial reports, profiling over 19,000 reports worldwide, is the communications partner for the awards program.  For more information about the awards program visit www.ceres.org or www.accaglobal.com/sustainability.

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