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FRAMEWORKS AND INDICES
Businesses within the Old Mutual plc group aim to meet the needs of customers while understanding the wider issues for which they have responsibility. The Group views corporate responsibility as being the pursuit of commercial success in ways that honour ethical values and respect people, communities, and the natural environment.
Our corporate responsibility programmes operate at a local level, following guidelines and frameworks that are standardised across the Group. These standards are consistent with the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), the criteria established by the FTSE4Good Index and the work done with the FORGE Group to identify issues relevant to the financial sector. We have established Group-wide Corporate Responsibility principles that each business unit applies at local level, supplemented by a more detailed Policy or Principles specific to their local circumstances.
Old Mutual plc is a member of the FTSE4Good Index, the selection criteria for which include working towards environmental sustainability, developing positive relationships with stakeholders, and upholding and supporting universal human rights. Old Mutual plc and Nedbank Group Limited are both included in the JSE's Socially Responsible Investment Index. This Index measures participant companies' commitment and performance against a triple bottom line of sustainability in terms of environmental, economic and social impacts.
United Nations Global Compact
The United Nations Global Compact is a strategic policy initiative for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. Old Mutual plc joined the UNGC in August 2008 and becase a member of the UNGC UK network in March 2009. We are due to report our first Communication on Progress (COP) in August 2010.
Visit the United Nations Global Compact website.
FTSE4Good
The FTSE4Good Index series has been designed to measure the performance of companies that meet globally recognised corporate responsibility standards, and to facilitate investment in those companies. Transparent management and criteria alongside the FTSE brand make FTSE4Good the index of choice for the creation of Socially Responsible Investment products.
Johannesburg Stock Exchange - Socially Responsible Investment Index
The Second King Report on Corporate Governance urges companies to embrace the triple bottom line as a method of doing business. At the same time, any attempt to develop triple bottom line practices needs to be balanced with the need for companies to make a return for their shareholders.
Although responsible business activity was already bedded down for many SA companies, owing to the complex nature of the country's history, and the fact that the country has been a leader internationally in establishing a progressive corporate governance code (The King Code), companies still needed guidance on what their practices needed to encompass and investors were looking for a way to invest in companies that had good practices in relation to the triple bottom line.
As a means of helping to focus the debate, the JSE (Johannesburg Stock Exchange) has developed Criteria to measure the triple bottom line performance of companies in the FTSE/JSE All Share Index, with the aim of compiling an Index comprising those companies that pass the Criteria requirements. The SRI (Socially Responsible Investment) Index further offers an aspirational sustainability benchmark, recognising those listed companies incorporating sustainability principles into their everyday business practices and to serve as a tool for investors to assess companies on a broader base.
Visit the Johannesburg Stock Exchange - Socially Responsible Investment Index website.
Triple Bottom Line
The triple bottom line (or "TBL", "3BL", or "People, Planet, Profit") captures an expanded spectrum of values and criteria for measuring organisational (and societal) success; economic, environmental and social. With the ratification of the UN ICLEI TBL standard for urban and community accounting in early 2007, this became the dominant approach to public sector full cost accounting. Similar UN standards apply to natural capital and human capital measurement to assist in measurements required by TBL, e.g. the ecoBudget standard for reporting ecological footprint.
In the private sector, a commitment to corporate social responsibility implies a commitment to some form of TBL reporting. This is distinct from the more limited changes required to deal only with ecological issues.
