AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS—Royal Philips Electronics has been rated the top climber among the “Leading 50” companies in the latest biannual survey of leading practice in corporate sustainability reporting. Philips now ranks number 12 in the survey, up from 39 in 2004.
Philips earned top scores in reporting on governance and strategy, illustrating that its efforts to embed sustainability throughout the organization are taking hold. In what it calls “The Corporate DNA test,” Tomorrow’s Value explains that “Philips describes how its business strategy links to work it is doing in different markets, and how it is innovating to improve its contributions to sustainable development.”
The report is published by SustainAbility in partnership with the United Nations Environment Program and Standard and Poor’s. Entitled Tomorrow’s Value, the survey ranks the world’s leaders in corporate sustainability reporting, transparency and disclosure.
The survey notes that “Value creation is increasingly surfacing as a theme in reports and their titles, as in the 2005 Philips report, ‘Creating value.’” According to the survey, leadership companies—including BP, BT, GE and Philips—are shifting the focus of their sustainability strategy away from risk management and towards a more progressive and entrepreneurial approach that seeks to identify the sustainability opportunities for strategic innovation and market building. However, the pioneers are a minority, representing 28 percent of the Leading 50.
“We are very pleased about this recognition for our sustainability work,” says Barbara Kux, chair of the Philips Corporate Sustainability Board. “I would like to personally congratulate our employees around the globe who work with passion and dedication each and every day on sustainability. The performance covered in our report is the direct result of our engagement and commitment.”
Kux also explained that this pursuit of growth and innovation is an important part of Philips’ ongoing efforts.
“Sustainability is at the heart of our strategy and values,” she says. “We will continue to implement our sustainability program, focusing as it does on business opportunities, of which a great example is the effort our lighting division is putting into energy saving solutions.”
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