De Beers has been declared the Overall Winner in the ACCA South Africa Sustainability Reporting Awards for its Report to Society 2010. This year makes it the second year running, for De Beers to win the award.

The Sustainability Reporting Awards aim to identify excellence and reward innovative attempts to communicate environmental and social corporate performance. Commenting on the Award, Dr James Suzman, Director of Public Affairs for De Beers, said “Winning these Awards for the second year is a great endorsement of our commitment to meet the expectations of our many different stakeholders in achieving our commercial goals. It’s particularly pleasing to be recognised for our leadership in this area, not only in the mining sector, but across all industries.”

Announcing the award, ACCA noted that De Beers “remains unmatched” in explaining its approach to sustainability management and reporting. Rating De Beers as “head and shoulders above anyone else”, ACCA judge Professor Neil Eccles cited the “overwhelming impression” that reporting is taken extremely seriously by the company, and the technical strengths of the report, as the basis of the panel’s decision. ACCA has been a driving force in promoting transparency and accountability in reporting on sustainability issues for two decades.

For De Beers, it has been four consecutive years that its Report to Society has been recognised by ACCA South Africa, including in the years 2009 and 2010 when the Report to Society won first prize in the Resources category, and won the Overall Winner, Best Sustainability Report.