British mining firm Anglo American has scooped the top prize at this year’s Building Public Trust Awards, while also being named the best firm listed on the FTSE 100 for integrated sustainability reporting.
The Building Public Trust Awards, which are sponsored by professional services firm PwC, showcases the UK firms who produce the best sustainability-focused financial reports, based on criteria agreed after consultation with the International Integrated Reporting Council.
The event’s judging panel highlight that sustainability is firmly imbedded Anglo American’s business philosophies, backed up in no small part by their ‘high quality of reporting on sustainability governance and stakeholder engagement.’ As a result, the company gained the top award for both Sustainability Reporting and Excellence in Reporting in the FTSE 100.
Anglo American – listed on both the London and Johannesburg exchanges – maintains a portfolio of mining businesses across the world, providing both bulk commodities and leading the market for platinum and diamond production. As part of its focus on responsible business practices, the company publishes an annual Sustainable Development Report and reaches out to investors on a regular basis.
The firm’s CEO, Mark Cutifani, said that he was ‘delighted’ that his company’s strong reporting performance had been recognized with a pair of awards. ‘We look forward to continuing to strengthen our dialogue with our many local and global stakeholders, using our Sustainable Development Report as the basis for that conversation.’
Other winners include support services firm Carillion, named the best sustainable reporters in the FTSE 250, and The Crown Estate, an investment vehicle for many of the UK’s natural and urban resources which is owned by the British Treasury.
In light of recent director pay reforms, too, the best executive remuneration reporters were recognized, with InterContinental Hotels Group and Hikma Pharmaceuticals scooping awards for companies in the FTSE 100 and 250, respectively.
This year’s event also saw a new, international award introduced, which was also awarded to a mining firm – South African gold specialists, Gold Fields. Denmark’s Novo Nordisk, Canadian firm PotashCorp and Dutch airport company Schiphol Group were all highly commended in the category.
The awards were judged by a panel of financial heavyweights which included Andy Brough, co-head of pan European small and mid-cap funds at Schroders, Chris Hodge, director of corporate governance at the Financial Reporting Council, and David Phillips, a former PwC senior partner and a trustee of the World Wildlife Fund. The panel was chaired by Charles Tilley, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and former director at Hambros.
