Neste Fortum topples Novo Nordisk at Euro environmental reporting awards

The UK’s United Utilities – which won the British event at the beginning of March – was chosen as runner-up.

The judges said Neste Fortum was selected because of the quality and depth of its reporting., while United Utilities was praised for its climate change and sustainable economy sectors.

Companies from10 countries – the UK, France, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Finland and Belgium – competed for the title of best European environmental reporters, compared with four countries in 1997.

The award is made each year by the leading accountancy bodies in Europe. The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) is the sponsoring body in the UK. Each participating country is allowed to nominate two firms whose environmental reports have won national competitions.

Although there was disappointment for the other UK nominee, Bovince (see related story), United Utilities was chosen as runner-up. ACCA had praised United Utilities’ report for its “excellent coverage” of climate change issues; the fact that the report’s sustainable economy section addresses management, benchmarking and partnership issues and the use of Government headline indicators of sustainable development and of DETR’s carbon dioxide indicator.

A special commendation for communication was made to DaimlerChrysler AG of Germany. The first timer reporter award was given to the Danish business Grundfos A/S.

Presenting the awards, European Environment Commissioner, Margot Wallström said: “Corporate environmental reports have improved the disclosure of environmental issues by firms and this European Environmental Reporting Awards scheme is making a major contribution in this area, as a result of efforts by professional accountancy bodies such as ACCA and the other sponsoring bodies. Of course, much remains to be done to further enhance the acceptance and usefulness of companies’ environmental reports, in particular in terms of greater harmonisation – and the Commission is working towards this end”.

The ten sponsoring bodies are: ACCA, Foreningen af Statsautoriserede (Denmark), Institut des Reviseurs d’Entreprises/Instiuut der Bedrijfsrevisoren (Belgium), TreuhandKammer (Switzerland), Consiglio Nazionale dei Dottori Commercialisti (Italy), Orden dos Revisores Oficias de Contas (Portugal), Koninklijk Nederlands Instituut van Registeraccountants (Netherlands), Ordre des Experts-Comptables (France) and Wirtschaftspruferkammer (WPK) (Germany).