Foster’s takes fifth place in Corporate Responsibility Index Awards

Posted by Editorial on 29th May 2009

Foster’s was rewarded as one of Australia’s leading businesses at the Corporate Responsibility Index (CRI) Awards – held last night at the 10th National Business Leaders Forum on Sustainable Development at Parliament House in Canberra.Senator Nick Sherry, Federal Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law, presented the awards, with no food or beverage company managing to claim one of the top three awards. The winners were EnergyAustralia (Best Performance), Sensis (Best New Entrant) and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Best Progress).

Overall, however, brewer Foster’s was fifth on the list of ‘the top five companies’, after EnergyAustralia, Boral, Minter Ellison Lawyers and ANZ.

The CRI is a strategic management tool designed by business for business, ensuring a systematic approach to managing, measuring and reporting the various impacts that companies have on society and the environment.

“Companies must take a long-term view of their impact on local communities and the natural environment as well as returns to investors,” Minister Sherry advised. “I congratulate the winners of the Corporate Responsibility Index for their commitment to sustainable business decisions and practice, including effective reporting.”

“The true value of responsible business practice crystallises around effective reporting because it provides a mechanism which helps broader social, environmental and governance issues to be factored into business and investment decision making,” he concluded.