ABSTRACT
Throughout the 1990s, Severn Trent was a UK leader in corporate environmental performance, putting in place a Group-level environmental management system certified to ISO 14001, heading indexes such as the Business in the Environment Index and winning a number of awards. Severn Trent generates around 0.3% of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions, but also produces 5% of UK renewable electricity. Senior executives in the Group understand the value of perceived corporate responsibility (CR) performance to SRI analysts in terms of both corporate reputation and improved levels of niche SRI investment by those who use best-in-class filters for investment. The best-in-class approach is effective at identifying minimum expected standards for an industry on a particular issue and highlighting those that do and those that do not reach that standard. The best-in-class approach is important because, on key issues, it can set a baseline for what would be considered the expected CR practice of a sector.
