Sustainability management

The new issue in business life is: sustainability. In contrast to viewing a business entity from a purely economic perspective, corporate action is, within the context of sustainability, influenced to a growing extent by ecological and social considerations. In the last few years, the number of large international companies that publish sustainability reports has grown significantly.

In 1987, the Bruntland Commission defined "sustainable development" as a development "that satisfies the needs of today's generation without impairing the ability of future generations to satisfy their own needs". In its corporate actions, Verbund follows this definition of sustainability. This means that Verbund pursues a corporate policy that respects ecological limits, ensures the efficient utilization of resources and, at the same time, strives to achieve social justice.

The ultimate responsibility for sustainability lies with the group's managing board which defines the sustainability goals and policies. The Sustainability Board, which is in charge of preparing the decisionmaking process, reports directly to the Managing Board. The Sustainability Committee coordinates the operative implementation of sustainability across the group and prepares the Sustainability Report.

The first Sustainability Report [External link] was publised in June 2003. It provided information on all relevant issues and clearly illustrated that corporate action at Verbund considers the interests of present and future generations in an economic, ecological and social sense. The report took first place in this years Austria Environmental Reporting Award (AERA) by the Chamber of Chartered Certified Accountants. The following is a short summary.