Corporate
environmental excellence finds its reward
Budapest,
5 May 2000 - The International
Chamber of Commerce and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) today
presented a dozen companies the first business awards for environmental achievement.
The winners were companies
of all sizes. They ranged from a major Japanese electric power utility to a
Peruvian brewer, an aluminium producer in Bahrain and a printer in southern
England.
The companies were chosen
among more than 120 candidates by a panel of international experts drawn from
business, academic and environmental groups.
On the final day of ICC's
Wor
ld Congress in the Hungarian capital, UNEP Executive Director Klaus Töpfer
and Lord Holme, Chairman of ICC's Environment Commission presented the winners
of the Millennium Award for Environmental Achievement with trophies and certificates.
UNEP Executive Director
Klaus Töpfer added: "The 12 award winners - drawn from many different
sectors and representing the world of business large and small - have built
on the foundation stones of well constructed policy and systems, improved resource
management, and technological innovation."
"We need sustainable
development and there is a need to highlight the very best practices in business
and industry. Therefore, it is most important to have these companies recognized
by the ICC and UNEP - the environment organization of the United Nations. Naturally,
these companies will have more problems to solve but they have taken up the
challenge to demonstrate that sound environmental management does not come at
the expense of economic performance, " he added.
Lord Holme of Cheltenham
commented :" Today we see one of the first fruits of the Global Compact
which Kofi Annan has proposed between the United Nations and business world-wide.
The Global Compact covers shared core values between business and the United
Nations in human rights, labour standards and the environment. This award highlights
positive co-operation between the ICC and UNEP to improve the environment."
"Very many companies
now recognise the need to integrate environmental imperatives into every phase
of their operations - and the twelve winners in these joint UNEP: ICC Millennium
Awards represent graphic evidence of this.
" In congratulating
them, the ICC re-iterates its commitment to high levels of environmental responsibility
on the part of businesses large and small wherever they operate."
A total of 38 companies
from 21 countries were put forward by ICC national committees for the final
selection process.
The award winners were:
Altos Hornos de Mexico,
Aluminium Bahrain,
Bahia Sul Celulose,
The Beacon Press,
BSES, Cervesur,
HiPP, International
Forest Products, Nesher
Israel Cement Enterprises, Rohner
Textil, Siam Compressor
Industry, Tokyo
Electric Power Company.
The award is expected to
become an annual event.