Environment Law Update – Access to information

United Kingdom

CSR reporting

AccountAbility, the not for profit institute set up to encourage good ethical and sustainability practices, has released a consultation document on its AA 1000 Assurance. Standard (AS) for CSR reporting. The AA 1000 AS launched in 2003, is the first standard developed for this purpose. The consultation relates to a guidance note on materiality, and will be followed by other guidance notes on various technical issues aimed mainly at assurance providers.

Companies that have been piloting the AA 1000 AS for the past twelve months have concluded that it has helped to improve relations with the stakeholders. AccountAbility says that companies should treat non-financial performance in the same way as financial information, using the same assurance approach. It also believes that it will aid companies having to issue an Operating and Financial Review under new legislation set to be introduced in the UK as a result of the Company Law Review. At present, 24 bodies offer an assurance service and these include environment management systems certification bodies as well as management consultancies. Many of the companies that took part during the first year of operation of the AA 1000 AS were looking at assurance providers to not only check the accuracy their data but to work beyond this and make recommendations concerning the quality of the report. The consultation paper defines the materiality principle by requiring the assurance provider to state whether an organisation has included in its report information about sustainability performance required by its stakeholders to make informed judgments.

(AccountAbility, February 2004)

European Union

Refrigerators

Commission Decision 2000/40/EC of December 1999 established the ecological criteria for an eco-label for refrigerators. The Decision, which originally expired on 1 December 2003, has been extended for a further twelve months and will, therefore, now be valid until 1 December 2004. The amendment was made to allow companies that have been awarded the eco-label to continue using it until the revision of Decision 2000/40/EC is completed.

(OJL 67, 5 March 2004)

Pollutant register

A European register of industrial emissions to air and water has been launched by the European Commission and the European Environment Agency (EEA). The European Pollutant Emission Register (EPER) will gather information on emissions of major pollutants from the 15 EU governments and Norway. Initially, it will contain data for 50 pollutants from around 10,000 industrial facilities in 36 industry sectors. It is intended to report approximately 90% of point source pollution, with facilities covered including power stations and oil refineries, waste disposal plants, intensive livestock rearing facilities and chemical, metals and cement manufacturing. Although the information is available publicly on the internet, some industrial sectors have pointed out the limitations to the data, such as no aggregate figures for the amount of pollutants released and no account taken of differences in the environmental impact of different substances. The next stage in the development of the register will be for the Commission to publish a report on the quality of the data reported by Member States. The Commission believes that the data is incomplete at present, particularly with regard to some pollutants and sectors. Member States have to update the data every three years, with the next reporting round due to take place in 2006.

(European Commission, February 2004)

International

Sustainability reporting

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) have announced that 400 organisations have now released a GRI-based sustainability report. The two latest companies to join were Glaxo SmithKline from the UK and the North West Timber Company from Russia. As the number of GRI-based reports continues to grow, the organisation has said that the costs of producing such reports will continue to fall.

(GRI News, 13 February 2004)

Environmental accounting

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has released new guidelines on eco-efficiency indicators linking environment performance to financial performance. It also said that the first multi-national company, CIBA Speciality Chemicals has used the guidelines for its environment report. Known as the 'manual for the preparers and users of eco-efficiency indicators', it is one of the first publications to standardise the disclosure of how environment performance relates to financial results. It says that it will provide the methodology to deliver information on environment performance demanded by the stakeholders and which cannot be provided by conventional accounting models. The guidelines cover areas such as water use, energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, ozone depleting substances and waste.

(UNCTAD Press Release, 13 February 2004)

For Further information please contact Mark Rutter at [email protected].