GRI Readers' Choice Awards 2008
May 7, 2008 - Amsterdam, Netherlands
Do people really read sustainability reports? Who are they and what are they looking for? To answer these questions, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) launched the 2008 Readers' Choice Awards competition.
The winners were announced on May 7, 2008 at an awards dinner in Amsterdam on the opening night of the 2008 Amsterdam Conference on Sustainability and Transparency.
In addition to the presentation of awards, a full summary and analysis of the Readers' Choice Survey data was released by KPMG and SustainAbility. Download the survey results: Count Me In: The readers' take on sustainability reporting (PDF 828 KB).
Covive Principal, Chad Upham, summarizes outstanding themes from the conference here: Covive News.
About the competition:
GRI's web-based scoring platform in five languages hosted nearly 800 reports initially entered in the competition. Readers were asked to score reports of interest to them on a scale of 1 to 5 along five criteria:
- Materiality: The report covers the issues that are most relevant and important to the company / organization.
- Stakeholder Inclusiveness: the report is focused on the most important stakeholders and is addressing their concerns.
- Sustainability Context: Degree to which the report explains the company / organization's own performance in relation to data about broader sustainability trends.
- Completeness: Scope of the report enabling readers to assess the organization's performance.
- Quality: Comparability, accuracy, timeliness, clarity, reliability, balance, quality of the information provided in the report.
Readers were able to assign unique weights to these criteria so that their scores not only reflect how well they thought the report met the criteria, but also which criteria were most important to them.
To determine the Final Report Score (FRS) the average weight of the attributes (as uniquely determined by each reader) was multiplied by the average score readers assigned each attribute. Then all five attributes were added up - resulting in the FRS.
1725 people in 70 countries cast 5650 valid scores for reports entered in the inaugural GRI Readers' Choice Awards.
When scoring a report, people were asked to identity their primary relationship to the company:
- 05% Journalist or other member of the media that covers the organization.
- 05% Investor or analyst assessing the company.
- 21% Employee of the organization or one of its subsidiaries.
- 02% Member of the board or senior management team of the organization.
- 14% Representatives of an organized civil society or non-governmental organization.
- 53% Just me! A category for concerned citizens, neighbors, students, consumers, etc.
Where did the scorers come from:
- 41% Europe
- 29% Asia / Pacific
- 22% Latin America
- 05% North America
- 03% Middle East / Africa
And the winners are...
Best Report - As judged by All Stakeholder Groups
- 1st Place, Petrobas (Brazil) view the report
- 2nd Place, Banco Real ABN (Brazil)
- 3rd Place, BP Group (UK)
Best Report - As judged by Media
- 1st Place, Gas Natural SDG (Spain) view the report
- 2nd Place, Italcementi (Italy)
- 3rd Place, TGC-5 (Russia)
Best Report - As judged by Financial Markets
- 1st Place, ABN Amro India (India) view the report
- 2nd Place, Banco do Brasil (Brazil)
- 3rd Place, Banco Real ABN (Brazil)
Best Report - As judged by Civil Society
- 1st Place, Petrobras (Brazil) view the report
- 2nd Place, Natural Cosmeticos (Brazil)
- 3rd Place, BP Group (UK)
Best Report - As judged by Employees
- 1st Place, ITC (India) view the report
- 2nd Place, Usinas Siderurgicas de Minas Gerais (Brazil)
- 3rd Place, ABN Amro India (India)
Best Report - Non-Business Organization
- 1st Place, Fundacion Empredimientos Rurales Los Grobos (Argentina)
- 2nd Place, City of Melbourne (Australia)
- 3rd Place, CILSA (Argentina)
Best Report - Not-So-Big-Business (<5000 employees)
- 1st Place, Frigoglass (Greece) view the report
- 2nd Place, Findesa (Nicaragua)
- 3rd Place, Euskatel (Spain)
Best Report - Non-OECD Company (www.oecd.org)
- 1st Place, TGC-5 (Russia) view the report
- 2nd Place, Usinas Siderurgicas de Minas Gerais (Brazil)
- 3rd Place, ITC (India)
Other highlights from day one of the Amsterdam Conference on Sustainability and Transparency:
Plenary speaker Cynthia Carroll, CEO of Anglo American - "The Critical Dimensions of Sustainability Reporting Today"
As number 7 on the 2007 Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women list, Carroll states: "Sustainability reporting is changing how companies are judged... it allows us to keep our 'license to operate'."
Mervyn E. King, Chairperson of the GRI Board of Directors addresses GRI Organizational Stakeholders in a General Assembly Meeting.
Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan tells the audience that "sustainability is more than a concept, but not yet a culture" and that reporting helps readers "check rhetoric against reality".
Covive Principal, Chad Upham, represents Covive as a GRI Organizational Stakeholder.
Chad Upham and other conference attendees enjoy a canal tour through Amsterdam enroute to the Readers' Choice Awards Dinner.