Vodafone Group has been ranked number one in this year’s global Accountability Rating®, which measures how companies have built responsible business practices.
The ranking places Vodafone Group highest within the global Fortune 50, showing a leading position amongst the world’s largest companies. Vodafone clearly outperforms all its peers in the computer, electronics and telecommunications sector.
The rating evaluates companies across six key areas: strategy, governance, performance management, stakeholder engagement, assurance and public disclosure. Together, these areas are the foundations of corporate accountability. The rating is the result of a global project led by AccountAbility and csrnetwork.
Apart from the overall top rating, Vodafone also rated highest in the areas of stakeholder engagement and public disclosure. Stakeholder engagement measured the efforts made to ensure two-way dialogue and best practice in identifying relevant groups of stakeholders. Public disclosure assessed the work involved in communicating Vodafone’s approach to reporting, and the level of transparency in implementing top-level policies.
The high rating shows the clarity of Vodafone’s in-depth reporting which includes the production of local corporate responsibility (CR) reports in 10 countries, including Malta. These reports respond to local issues and stakeholders’ concerns.
Corporate responsibility is one of Vodafone’s six strategic goals and the group is in the second year of a five-year CR strategy with clear priorities set on ethics, stakeholder engagement, consistency, responsibility to customers, reuse and recycling, energy and climate change and socio-economic value. In 2006 Vodafone also announced a £5 million social investment fund over the next three years to develop mobile products and services that benefit society.
Only recently, Vodafone Malta was the first company in the country to publish its CR Report. This includes information about the company’s management of corporate responsibility and deals with topics of public interest such as health, mobile phones and base stations, energy consumption, handset recycling and responsible marketing. It also gives information about the company’s behaviour towards its employees. Moreover, the report refers to the work of the Vodafone Malta Foundation, which has made social investments of over Lm200,000 since it was set up three years ago.
Vodafone Malta’s CR performance is monitored quarterly by Vodafone Group which reviews levels of commitment, integration, management of issues and implementation of CR strategy.
Vodafone Group’s score in the global Accountability Rating® is 72 points out of 100, ranking first this year. The average score of the G-50+ companies in the 2006 rating is just 34, with the top 10 averaging at 60. The score is based on Vodafone Group’s 2006 reporting.