Judges' remarks

The members of the jury met on 19 March 2005 in Lahore to evaluate the reports submitted by the entrants and concluded as follows: At the international level, ACCA gives only one Environmental Reporting Award. However, in Pakistan, with the aim of allowing for fair competition and in view of the disparity of resources generally between these categories, on jury's recommendation, ACCA and WWF Pakistan instituted 3 awards for each of (a) Local Listed Companies, (b) Local Non-listed Companies and (c) Multi-national Companies.
-- A key expectation of the jury has been that the quality of reports would improve over time. However, this year saw a decrease in the number of entries. None of the entrants in the "Local Listed Companies " category could get short listed, while the jury noted no significant improvement in the quality of reports in the "Multi-national Companies" category. However, the jury found and notes that the quality of reports in the "Local Listed Companies " category has shown remarkable improvement.
-- The jury felt that in order to be able to achieve their objective of showcasing best practices, reports submitted for the competition must present a comparative analysis of stated goals and performance in the reporting year. And, the report must reflect continuity with the company's performance in the previous years.
This would require companies to bring together more wide-ranging company data than is normally required in a typical corporate report. The jury also took into account both external and internal credibility of each entry by seeking more information on the process that a company employs for compliance and external verification.
-- The signing off of the report by CEO is recommended and encouraged. This ensures top management involvement in the preparation and submission of the report and confirms that a process exists for internal verification.
-- Like previous years, jury members disclosed their professional involvement, if any, with the competing companies, and, following such disclosure, ensured that any relationships did not effect the final decision.
-- As in the previous years, a prominent and distinct disclaimer should be included in the certificate of the award and widely disseminated to highlight that the award is only for environmental reporting and not for environmental compliance. The jury, in deciding on the best environmental report in each of the categories, does not certify that the practices and policies of the awardees are sustainable or environmentally friendly. The language of the disclaimer should be the same as that used in the previous years.
-- The jury places on record its appreciation and gratitude for the excellent secretarial support provided by ACCA and WWF Pakistan including a preliminary, and confidential, evaluation of the applicants. This should continue in the future.
-- The jury wishes to place on record its appreciation for the excellent and laudable initiative of ACCA and WWF-Pakistan to award best environmental reports in recognition of innovative attempts to communicate environmental performance in a complete, credible and transparent manner. It is hoped that this process will continue in the years to follow to facilitate development of this crucial segment of reporting in Pakistan.
DECISION: With the above observations and against the yardsticks of completeness, credibility and communication, the jury considered the reports submitted by the applicants and unanimously selected Pakistan Refinery Limited in the category of Local Listed Companies and Unilever Pakistan Limited in the category of Multi-national Companies for the ACCA-WWF Pakistan Environmental Reporting Award for 2004. No applicant qualified for award in the category of Local Non-listed Companies.