Aviva 2007 Annual Report Download - page 75
Download and view the complete annual report
Please find page 75 of the 2007 Aviva annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.Aviva plc
Annual Report and
Accounts 2007
71
Business
review
Focusing on Aviva’s
carbon offset programme:
treadle pumps
External Benchmarking
Our CSR achievements in 2007 were recognised by
our continued inclusion in some of the leading external
benchmarks, which provide a good measure of our progress.
Some of the key achievements are highlighted below:
– The Dow Jones Sustainability World and STOXX
indices track the financial performance of the leading
sustainability-driven companies worldwide. Aviva
continued to feature in these indices in 2007.
– Aviva was awarded a bronze class distinction
in the SAM (Sustainable Asset Management)
Sustainability Yearbook 2008. Only the top-scoring
15% of the 2,500 largest companies in the world,
as reflected in the Dow Jones Global Index and assessed
by SAM, are included in the Sustainability Yearbook.
– The FTSE4Good Index Series measures the
performance of companies that meet globally
recognised standards on corporate social responsibility.
It is a good benchmark as the criteria evolve
over time, demanding continued improvement.
Aviva continues to be included in the index.
– We also continue to be included in both the E.
Capital Partners Investment’s (ECPI) Ethical Index
Euro and Ethical Index Global indices. We were
rated EE+ (where “E” stands for ethical) and were
considered to be the best-performing CSR company
in our sector.
– Aviva was ranked 35 out of 100 in the 2007
Accountability Rating of the world’s largest
companies – a tool for measuring the extent to
which companies have built responsible practices
into the way they do business.
Six Steps wins an award
Six-steps.org was named as the
winner of the Best Corporate Social
Responsibility Programme at the
2007 IFS Financial Innovation awards.
This is an accessible, engaging and
jargon-free web site, which provides
people with free, unbiased financial
information and ideas. It is part
of our commitment to play a
leading role in financial education,
and is initially aimed at the UK.
This innovation meets a currently
unfulfilled need across the population
in the UK and hopes to address
similar needs in other countries as
plans are afoot to launch in other
sites around the world.
As part of Aviva’s carbon offset
programme, we are involved with
a treadle pump project in Uttar
Pradesh, northern India where a
large percentage of the population
live below the poverty line.
Irrigation is vitally important to
crop production in the area but
fuel for diesel pumps is both
expensive and polluting.
Treadle pumps are human-
powered, designed to lift water
from a depth of seven metres or
less; they are cost effective and
non-polluting. They typically replace
rented diesel pumps which can
have a spectacular income impact
for the farmer. In the sample
surveyed, rural households more
than doubled their income.
IDE India have been working in
15 major Indian states, providing
more than 850,000 farmers with
green technology.
Accounting for Sustainability
Working with the Accounting for Sustainability project,
Aviva is helping define a new reporting standard for
sustainable business and a tool-kit to embed sustainable
decision making. The table on pages 72 and 73 demonstrates
some of the measures in the sustainability model.
We continue to work towards internalising the cost
of carbon and demonstrating how environmental impacts
of the business can be brought into our reporting and
accounting process.