In 2007, Aviva was one of three organisations, and the first insurance company, to participate in a new reporting tool created by HRH The Prince of Wales’ Accounting for Sustainability project. Our group CSR director, Louella Eastman, and group chief accountant Tim Harris sit on the steering group, which involves detailed consultation with public and private companies, investors, accounting standards bodies and NGOs.

Accounting for Sustainability has developed guidance in two areas:

• embedding sustainability to become part of an organisation’s DNA
• reporting sustainability

Aviva has been primarily involved in the work on reporting sustainability. This work has resulted in a new model, called the Connected Reporting Framework.

It is a holistic tool, designed to help companies to report on both financial and sustainability issues. Underpinned by Accountancy Standards Board and Global Reporting Initiative principles, the transparent and adaptable approach enables organisations to develop their reporting according to key sustainability criteria yet retain the freedom to include sector-specific information.

This year, we reported our performance in three environmental areas: greenhouse gas emissions, resource use (incorporating water and paper consumption) and waste (see the charts below or our Annual Report and Accounts for more detail). We recorded our cash flow performance, direct and indirect impacts on our stakeholders and benchmarking information, providing context to both our recent performance and future targets.