Origin Energy Takes Sustainability Gong
14 December 2007 at 2:41 pm
After three years as a finalist, Origin Energy has taken out Ethical Investor’s 2007 Sustainable Company of the Year Award.
The awards, now in their seventh year, recognise excellence in Australian Stock Exchange Listed companies across corporate sustainability factors.
In announcing Origin’s award, last year’s recipient IAG’s Lynette Thorstensen said Origin Energy is a true sustainability leader.
She said it leads its industry in helping customers who can’t pay their bills. It leads in green energy, it leads in providing carbon offset services and it leads in investment in renewable energy alternatives.
This year Origin was nominated for its focus on developing commercial relationships with community and sporting groups – to help their members recognise climate change risks and do something practical about it.
The Sustainable Small Company of the Year Award went to Regional Express which the judges said had employed a community enterprise-based business model to re-open regional airline routes in partnership with local councils and communities.
In addition, a generous drought relief package and employee profit share scheme were deciding factors.
Other Corporate Awards were:
– Environment – Australis Aquaculture – for successfully addressing a range of environmental changes in the important aquaculture sector.
– Social-Community – CSL – for its highly effective Gardasil vaccination campaign which will likely see cervical cancer cured from this generation of young women onwards.
– Labour Relations – Kingsgate Consolidated – for setting a very high standard of Indigenous employment and community development at its mine site in Thailand.
– Corporate Governance – Boral – for governance compliance and reform, award-winning annual report and sustainability reports; as well as its work to embed sustainability within the company’s governance framework.
