Winners 2012

Commodity Market Development ...

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Award

Improved ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) performance positively affects overall business performance. Here, we are looking for commodity market practitioners that have excelled in CSR by extending the scope of their traditional activities to mitigate the risks and effects of their operations – be they physical (as in the case of a mining project) or financial (as in the case of Socially Responsible Investment – SRI).

CSR and SRI are major ongoing trends in the global asset management industry whereby institutions seek to make their investments more meaningful, whether their concerns be social and/or environmental. The social dimension of commodity business activity is, therefore, critical to the continued support of customers, employees/communities, and long term-investors – and so to their long-term success.

The issues of environmental and social responsibility have now been placed firmly on the agendas of the Boards of many commodity companies, increasingly being embedded into the core business strategy and reporting systems.

Increasingly people are looking behind what companies really stand for and using their spending power to back those they agree with. As a consequence, many commodity related business have set themselves the goal of mobilising their people and partners to integrate CSR as a core business asset in order to combine profitability and sustainability by making CSR a cornerstone of the way they operate (as witnessed by the increasing number of sustainability and CR managers within organisations).

The emphasis here is on ethics, sustainability, governance, and the environment. The Shortlisted Nominees will be those companies leading in the sector – in the fields of social and environmental accountability, community investment, stakeholder consultation and partnerships.