Companies today are under increasing pressure from a variety of sources to be more transparent about the extent of their compliance with environmental and social responsibility laws and regulations, and about their environmental and social impacts and performance.
Environmental, social and sustainability reporting provide a framework for reporting on all this as well as enhancing corporate reputation and ensuring transparency in reporting. Environmental, Social and Sustainability Reporting are still relatively new concepts, not only in Pakistan but in many parts of the world.
Though environmental, social and sustainability reporting are not mandatory, a time will come when companies will feel the pressure from shareholders and stakeholders as to the need for environmental, social and sustainability reporting.
I am pleased to notice that not only the quantity but even the quality of the reports submitted to the ACCA-WWF Pakistan Environmental Reporting Awards has developed over the last five years. This shows that our corporate sector is taking a serious interest in triple bottom line reporting.
ACCA-WWF Pakistan Environmental Reporting Awards is an excellent initiative to encourage companies to report environmental, social and sustainability information either in the annual reports or stand alone reports. The Ministry of Environment commends this initiative and is pleased to be fully supportive of ACCA-WWF Pakistan Environmental Reporting Awards 2006.