Australasian Investor Relations Award

With all the recent focus on Copenhagen, I was just reminded that I never posted my promised blog about our recent receipt of the Australasian Investor Relations Association Award for Best Environment Disclosure by an Australasian Company.

We are really proud of this achievement as the award is not judged by a panel of ‘sustainability experts’ but by Australian and international fund managers and equities analysts.

We are now ranked among the top sustainable companies in the world through inclusion on the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and the Australia New Zealand Carbon Disclosure Project Leaders Index.

In a media release, AGL Group Head of Corporate Affairs Paul Simshauser said, “We are delighted that the Association has recognised how seriously we take sustainability as it pertains to environmental, social and governance disclosure.

“As we demonstrated by holding our inaugural sustainability webcast recently, these are not peripheral issues for AGL. These are issues core to our business.

“AGL is committed to continuous disclosure so that our investors and potential investors have the knowledge that they need to make informed investment decisions. We understand that our sustainability performance is increasingly an important part of how we’re judged by the investment community.”  

We would like to take this opportunity to again thank the investment community and the AIRA for this award, and to congratulate the other award winners and runners up.  For a full report on the awards, including the top 20 performers in each category, visit http://aira.org.au/images/stories/awards_final_media_release.pdf.

AGL Biomass Policy

Last week the Safety, Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility Committee of the AGL Board approved the AGL Biomass Policy, to guide AGL’s position in relation to the selection of appropriate sources of biomass for electricity generation.

The Policy was  originally developed in 2005 in response to stakeholder concerns about potential impacts to biodiversity in the event that energy companies source fuel for power generation from native forest.   

In response to renewed interest from stakeholders in relation to biomass generation, this year AGL reviewed and revised the Policy, which was subsequently approved by the Board Committee.

 The AGL Climate Change Council was consulted in relation to the content and appropriateness of the Policy.  The organisations represented on the AGL Climate Change Council  include WWF-Australia, The Climate Institute and the Australian Conservation Foundation.

AGL Biomass Policy

AGL will not consider contracting with, or investing in, biomass projects that:

•  Source any fuel from a native forest; or
• Source any fuel from a plantation forest located on a site that was cleared of native forest after 1990.

 AGL will consider contracting with, or investing in, biomass projects that:

• Source fuel from wood waste obtained from a plantation forest located on a site that has not been native forest at any time since 1990;
• Source fuel from biomass obtained from a plantation that is sustainably harvested (i.e. energy crops); or
• Source fuel from environmental projects designed to control noxious weeds.

 AGL will consider other localised environmental issues on a project-by-project basis, taking into account stakeholder views.

The Policy is also available on our website, at www.agl.com.au/sustainability/pages/AGL-and-the-environment.aspx

Leave a comment to tell us what you think of our policy.

GRI Reader’s Choice Awards 2010

The Global Reporting Initiative’s Reader’s Choice Awards 2010 have just been launched. These awards give sustainability report readers a chance to vote for the sustainability reports that they find most valuable, and to provide feedback on the type of information that they would like companies to provide in their reports.

Visit the awards site to vote for your favourite reports at http://awards.globalreporting.org/locale.do?language=en

If you like AGL’s sustainability report (www.aglsustainability.com.au) we’d love it if you could take the time to vote for us and share your opinions on what was good (and what could be better) about our report.

Voters have until 27 January 2010.

RIAA Responsible Investment Report 2009

In November, the Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA) released the Responsible Investment Report 2009. 

RIAA reported a 34% increase in the number of signatories to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI), and found that $38.2 billion worth of assets are held by Australian fund managers/institutions that are known to have already integrated environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues into their day-to-day financial analysis and/or stock selection to a high degree.

We were very interested to learn that RIAA considers that approximately 50% of all funds under the management of Australian asset managers now fall under a UN PRI commitment to integrate ESG considerations into their analyses.

In our view, this points to the increasing importance of providing high quality disclosure on our sustainability performance to the investment community.

You can download the report from the RIAA website (www.responsibleinvestment.org). Leave a post to let us know what you took out of the report. What ESG issues do you think its important to consider when investing in a company?

AGL short-listed for 2009 Australasian Investor Relations Award

AGL has been short-listed for the 2009 Australasian Investor Relations Awards in the category of ‘Best Environmental, Social and Governance Disclosure by an Australasian Company’.

The winners will be announced on the 2nd December 2009. For more information about the awards go to www.aira.org.au