Nike (NYSE: NKE) received top recognition for sustainability reporting from the investment advocacy group Ceres and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).
Other winners included Anvil Knitwear, American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP) and SAP (NYSE: SAP).
The Ceres-ACCA Reporting Awards program, which began in 2001, recognizes exemplary reporting on sustainability performance by corporations, and other organizations across the US, Canada and Mexico. The awards also provide guidance to other groups and companies that are publishing or intend to publish sustainability or corporate social responsibility reports.
"Corporations in the 21st Century need to have transparent and honest disclosure of their environmental and social impact," said Ceres President Mindy Lubber. "The winners of the Ceres-ACCA reporting awards serve as best practice models for corporate sustainability reporting that we hope will lead to improved sustainability performance."
Nike’s report addresses the new context within which business must operate – one with a rising global population, decreasing natural resources, and an unstable climate – and demonstrates how it is shifting to a more sustainable business model to retain competitive advantage.
In the report, Nike recognizes that "sustainability is a route to profitability," and details how it’s integrating sustainability into strategic planning and decision-making, from its board of directors, to its product designers and across its supply chain. The report also demonstrates the company’s commitment to scaling sustainability solutions through the open sourcing of its audit and design tools and its integral role in the creation of the Green Xchange platform.
American Electric Power was the first runner up for its (AEP) Corporate Accountability report, which represents the company’s shift to a more integrated reporting model-combining AEP’s annual report to shareholders with its traditional sustainability disclosure. "This new model of reporting represents the company’s efforts to provide the investor community with a better understanding of the materiality of its corporate sustainability strategies and performance," Ceres said.
Anvil Knitwear was recognized for the best first-time report. The company uses the web to deliver the report and candidly describes key challenges facing the company and its industry. Anvil also drives consumer education through its interactive website TrackMyT.com, which allows customers to input the tracking number from a t-shirt and learn how the product was produced from farm to store.
SAP also received recognition for "Innovative Use of Web and Social Media ". The software company utilized web technology-including video, online dialogue forums, and customizable data charts-to create an interactive online platform for sharing its sustainability strategy and performance. The report offers stakeholders the opportunity to provide uncensored and real-time feedback on every page of the report. SAP also includes an interactive materiality matrix, which invites readers to submit their own materiality analysis for the company and view how the aggregate community feedback compares with the SAP’s own assessment.
"Ceres and ACCA believe that recognizing disclosure best practices is crucial to driving improvements in sustainability performance; that reporting motivates benchmarking, learning and goal-setting, and builds an accountability mechanism for internal and external stakeholders-as well as a platform for engagement," the groups said.
This year there were 98 entries from companies and organizations, representing more than 20 sectors. From these, 17 reports were short-listed and 4 winners chosen.
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