NS winner of Crystal Prize for most transparent report
NS is the winner of the Crystal Prize in 2014 for the most transparent corporate responsibility report in the Netherlands, awarded on November 20th. One of the reasons for NS to win this year’s competition out of 450 participating companies is the publication of a social and environmental profit and loss account in its annual report.
According to the jury, with chair Bibi de Vries, Prince Carlos de Bourbon de Parme and Leen Paape, NS distinguishes itself from its competitors by showing a clear connection between financial and nonfinancial information on people, planet and profit.
The Crystal Prize for sustainability reporting is an initiative of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (EZ), together with the Netherlands Institute of Chartered Accountants (NBA). The score of individual companies is collected in the Transparency Benchmark, an annual investigation on the content and quality of corporate social responsibility reports of Dutch companies. In 2014, the criteria for the Transparency Benchmark were adjusted to better align with international developments such as the OECD Guidelines. These are now linked to criteria on for example labour, human rights, supply chain responsibility and due diligence.
An analysis of the 2014 results show that 10% of participating companies have fully integrated the OECD Guidelines and that an additional 32% have used the OECD Guidelines as the starting point for their code of conduct and corporate governance code.
Minister of Economic Affairs Kamp announced that the NS has shown courage by being open and transparent on the impact of their business activities. Unilever won the prize for the most innovative report, which according to the jury contributes to broader societal discussions in a creative and innovative way. E.ON won the prize for the fastest climber of the benchmark: this energy company jumped from place 171 to 36.
The full results can be read in the full report on the Transparency Benchmark (in Dutch).