Reporting principles
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We have a clear commitment and ambition to be best-in-class in sustainability, which we regard as a continuous learning process. Within the boundaries of our core values and Business Principles, as well as our corporate ambition to drive sustainability into our daily business practices, we require local management and employees to find the best ways to realize our ambitions in their respective countries. We are continuously improving our management information systems and data gathering processes. Furthermore, we welcome an active dialog with our stakeholders and give their opinions the serious consideration they deserve. With this process in mind, we expect the clarity, consistency, and accuracy of our reporting to further improve over time. |
Scope
This report covers our global activities and performance in the field of sustainability. Specifically it includes quantitative and qualitative data relating to the calendar year 2007. This has, by and large, been obtained from our financial management reporting system and the corporate reporting system for Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) performance indicators. We have decided to aim for the financial community as the primary audience for this report. Therefore, we have striven to focus our messages in a way that we believe would be most relevant to this target audience.
All statements and figures in this report are excluding Organon BioSciences and ICI unless otherwise stated.
Selection of topics
Given that the financial community is our primary target group, we have interacted with investors in order to gain further insight into their needs. An initial draft of this report has been discussed with investors and we have taken into account their suggestions. At the same time we have learned that it will take more time to be able to report our sustainability performance more in line with the financial community’s needs, not least because there are no global standards on non-financial indicators.
We appreciate the work of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Where relevant we have used their Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. An index of all indicators used according to the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines can be found on our corporate website (www.akzonobel.com).
We also used information from third party questionnaires, notably the influential Dow Jones Sustainability Indices, and feedback from various stakeholders.
Reporting process
The integration of sustainability in day-to-day business is part of our internal audits. Moreover, this 2007 report has also been reviewed by independent, external auditors. We have requested the external auditors to focus their 2007 audit program and to provide us with assurance on the embedding of sustainability in the management cycle of our business units and sites – from governance to risk management and compliance; from integrating sustainability objectives in the strategic planning processes, to operational planning, target-setting and progress monitoring – while providing assurance that managers and employees are evaluated and remunerated against these targets.
Senior managers approved the content and the quantitative data used in the sections of the Sustainability Report relating to their respective areas of responsibility. The auditors were asked to review the reliability of the consolidation process for the quantitative data – together with the other information in our Sustainability Report. These reports and key performance indicators were subject to a limited review. We are confident in the overall reliability of the data reported, but recognize that some of these data are subject to a certain degree of uncertainty, inherent to limitations associated with measuring and calculating data.
