Statement by Det Norske Veritas

DNV has been engaged to review ABB’s progress assessment as described above, and that the result presented on these two pages is based on collected information from relevant parts of the organization.

We have performed this task by sampling ABB’s process. The information on which we have based our statement is gathered through desk-top studies as well as telephone interviews and meetings with Group Function Sustainability Affairs.

Conclusions
ABB’s decision to move towards the GRI Guidelines is valuable. Considerable efforts have now been made to implement thorough changes in ABB’s reporting practices allowing the collection of aggregated and reportable data. ABB’s sustainability network, and particularly the Business Area Sustainability Controllers, has faced new and demanding reporting requirements.

These efforts have resulted in the adoption of a substantially larger number of indicators, many related to social performance, of which several are presented in this year’s Sustainability Report.

In addition to GRI’s requirements, it is positive that ABB focuses on improvement processes and the achievement of targets. These additional steps increase the likelihood that information disclosed by the indicators will be actively used by ABB to promote sustainable operations.

Based on the information available to us, we would draw attention to the following shortcomings and improvement areas:

• Some inconsistencies in the selection, interpretation and scoring of the GRI indicators in the progress assessment, have been identified
• There is room for more in-depth quality assurance of the data on social performance. The social dimension, as it is presented, mainly focuses on baseline data and processes in place (with less information on targets set and reached)
• With ABB’s increased focus on social performance there is a limitation that the system only includes countries with production sites, thereby excluding countries with potential importance for ABB’s global performance, e.g. ABB projects in Nigeria and Angola
• The reporting from the Business Areas should be strengthened for next year to secure satisfactory attention to environmental and social aspects of ABB’s products and services.
• To ensure a uniform understanding of the new indicators and further improvement of next year’s process, we highly recommend that experience of the process is exchanged within the sustainability network
• By including economic indicators, ABB covers the entire triple bottom line. The choice of indicators, the processes and the assessment should be further elaborated and improved to better cover local economic effects of ABB’s operations.

Iain M. Light Chief Operating Officer Det Norske Veritas		Jon Jerre Project Manager DNV Consulting