The shortlists have now been drawn up for the first UK awards to recognise those organisations which take responsibility for the impacts which their activities have on the communities and environments in which they operate and report their performance to stakeholders. The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) Awards for Sustainability Reporting will be presented in London in Spring 2002.
The awards will be presented in three reporting categories: Sustainability; Environment; and Social Reporting. ACCA was a pioneer in encouraging environmental reporting and has organised the UK Environmental Reporting Awards for the last ten years. It has expanded the awards scheme this year to reflect more accurately the increased amount of information which organisations now need to produce for their stakeholders on their environmental, social, and economic performance.
Rachel Jackson, ACCA’s Social and Environmental Manager, said: " The shortlists have been drawn up from more than 100 entries in the three reporting categories. More organisations are recognising that consumers, pressure groups, regulators and other affected groups want more than ‘bottom line’ reports, which simply look at historical financial information. Organisations now have to be accountable to their stakeholders for their environmental, social and economic impacts and to become transparent by reporting on the way they do business.

Rachel Jackson added that drivers for organisations to produce sustainability reports are

„h growing demands from socially responsible investors for greater corporate accountability and transparency in the way companies manage their impact on the environment

and
„h the recommendations made by the independent Company Law Review panel for mandatory social and environmental reporting.

ACCA Awards for Sustainability Reporting shortlists

. 1. Sustainability reporting category:
British Airways
British Airports Authority
British Telecom plc
Co-operative Bank
Risk and Policy Analysts Ltd (SME)
Shell International
TXU Europe Group plc
United Utilities plc
Wessex Water Services Ltd.

2. Environmental reporting category:
Large organisations
BP plc (website)
Carillion plc (Wolverhampton) (website)
Co-operative Bank plc
Environment Agency
ICI (website)
National Grid Company plc (website)
Scottish Power plc
Shell International
Unilever (website)
United Utilities plc (north west England)

Small and Medium Enterprises
Beacon Print Ltd (Uckfield)
Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council
Bovince Ltd (North London)
Soapworks Ltd (Glasgow)
Wastewatch (London)

First time reporters
British Broadcasting Corporation
Co-operative Insurance Society Ltd
Killingholme Power Ltd (Immingham)
Go-Ahead Group plc (Newcastle upon Tyne)
Lattice Group plc (London)

3. Social Reporting category:
Large organisations
BP plc
Camelot Group plc
Co-operative Insurance Society Limited (CIS)
Co-operative Bank plc
Premier Oil plc
Rio Tinto
Traidcraft
United Utilities plc

Community-based reports
Art Shape Limited (Gloucester)
Comtechsa Limited (Liverpool)
Furniture Resource Centre Group (Liverpool)
Lhanbryde Challenge (Elgin, Moray, Scotland)
Rural Environmental Action Plan (Keith, Banffshire, Scotland)

The winners of all three reporting categories will be chosen in December.