What set the Top 10 ranked companies in the Accountability Rating apart from the other companies was their disclosure across most of the accountability dimensions including governance, strategy, performance management, stakeholder engagement, public disclosure and assurance.
BHP Billiton, Sasol, Lonmin, Anglo American, Nedbank, Anglo Platinum, Gold Fields, Barloworld, AngloGold Ashanti and Santam were the Top 10 ranked companies.
"These companies tended to score highest on disclosure around their strategy, and the integration of social, economic and environmental issues to their overall company strategy," says Ven Pillay from the Unisa Centre for Corporate Citizenship.
BHP Billiton scored the highest of all companies on a number of dimensions including reporting of its strategy (99,95%), performance management (90%) and assurance (67%).
"The company developed a roadmap, which embeds sustainability at strategic, operational and commodity level to ensure compliance, risk management, responsibility and innovation," says Pillay.
She says BHP Billiton continues to improve its performance across a range of indicators and is one of a handful of companies that gets independent verification of its reporting.
"The assurance statement clearly indicates which criteria were used in the assessment process, company operational sites visited, and improvements that should be addressed by the company," says Pillay.
Lonmin, a newcomer to the rating, scored the highest of all companies on governance.
Pillay says Lonmin's clear description of the board's roles and responsibilities and division of power between the board and management structures of the company is openly disclosed. The company also established a committee to take responsibility for social, environmental and broader economic issues. Importantly, the company also aligns executive bonuses to performance on nonfinancial measures.
Among the Top 10, disclosure on governance improved by 11% in the past year. Pillay says this could be because companies are getting to grips with frameworks such as the King codes on corporate governance. However, the average scores for all companies improved by only 3% on the previous year, suggesting most still have some way to go.
The Nedbank Group scored the highest of all companies (90%) on stakeholder engagement. The company provided a comprehensive list of stakeholders, which it identified using the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines. It also described its rationale and approach, and its identification of material issues was informed by a wide range of stakeholders.
AngloGold Ashanti scored the highest score for public disclosure (81%). The research found that AngloGold Ashanti's disclosure on social, environmental and broader economic issues was comprehensive and systematic. The company also included scorecards and targets, with all information included in the annual report.
Mittal Steel, Gold Fields and Tiger Brands were the biggest improvers in this year's survey. Mittal Steel improved its average score by 26% from 19% to 45%. It produced its first fully dedicated sustainability report last year.
Gold Fields improved its score from 42% to 66% and moved from the 23rd position to 7th place in this year's rating. "The company seemed to refocus on the business after it defended a hostile takeover bid by rival Harmony," says Pillay.
SABMiller, which was ranked 6th in last year's survey, fell out of the Top 10 this year to number twelve.
De Jongh says discussions around sustainability shouldn't be restricted to preparation once a year for the annual reports, but they should be happening on a daily basis.
In top-ranked company BHP Billiton, management systems have been set up to report on performance on a range of measures on a quarterly basis.
"By the time it gets to annual report time, we simply pull all the information together and write it up," says BHP Billiton vice-president of health, safety, environment & community Andre van der Bergh.
He says world-class sustainability reporting requires discipline to monitor performance throughout the year. "And people must be held accountable when targets aren't met," he says.
