OREANDA-NEWS. April 07, 2010. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Russia is proud to present in Russia its first corporate responsibility (CR) report, for the 2009 fiscal year, in which the firm’s corporate responsibility strategy, achievements and goals are described.

Lioudmila Mamet, PwC’s CR leader in Russia and Central and Eastern Europe, says:

“We consider non-financial reporting to be an important component of sustainable development. For many years now, we have been helping our clients to prepare similar reports, thus contributing to the development of corporate responsibility in Russia. For two years in a row, in 2007 and 2008, we issued community activities reports. Now, we are proud to have produced our own comprehensive CR report in accordance with Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines. By issuing this report, we wanted to stress the importance of transparency in corporate responsibility and tell our stakeholders (both internal and external) about this area of the firm’s activities. We are happy to be the first major audit network company in Russia to issue such a report.”

Globally, PwC firms approach CR from four perspectives – Marketplace, People, Environment and Community – and PwC in Russia (PwC Russia) does the same. PwC Russia’s CR report is designed to cover a range of topical issues in these four areas.

Although this is PwC Russia's first report, PwC Russia has been developing its CR initiatives for years. About 18 months ago, PwC Russia consolidated its various efforts in this area in order to determine a long-term vision for the CR programme, its content and objectives. PwC Russia also developed a set of key performance indicators to help measure progress.

Lioudmila Mamet comments:

“Our key challenge is to encourage and support the development of sustainable business practices and corporate responsibility within the firm and among the Russian business community. The work we are undertaking in CR is becoming more aligned with our overall business strategy.

We want to show our understanding of our impact on the community. We want this report to communicate our understanding to the reader, and we hope that it will contribute to stakeholder dialogue.”

Globally, PwC is a signatory to the UN Global Compact. In early 2009, PwC Russia also signed up to the Social Charter of Russian Business of the RSPP (Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs). The Social Charter is a set of principles for responsible business practices. In preparing the report, PwC followed the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Reporting Guidelines version G3. The report will be included in the GRI Register and in the RSPP’s National Register of Corporate Non-financial Reports.