ABB communicates with stakeholders on sustainability and on implementation of the Global Compact principles in its Annual Report 2003, through the Operational Review and the Sustainability Review (The complete ABB Group Annual Report 2003 consists of an Operational review, a Financial review and a Sustainability review). The company''s commitment to the Global Compact is reiterated in the Sustainability review under Principal partnerships (p. 24), and through examples of engagement highlighted throughout the company''s website (see Sustainability at http://www.abb.com).

For the third year, ABB has chosen to follow the triple bottom line guidelines defined by the Global Reporting Initiative in reporting its economic, environmental and social performance. This year, the company has taken the significant step of integrating sustainability reporting into the Group''s Operational review, formally embedding the triple bottom line approach.

The Operational review of the Annual Report 2003 includes a section on sustainability (see pages 32 through 37), describing how ABB has taken "bold steps" in 2003 to further integrate sustainability in every aspect of the company?s business. On pages 34 through 36, the review describes ABB''s environmental policy (new nine-point environmental policy, mid-term objective to become CO2 neutral, environmental management systems and further reduction of hazardous wastes) and social policy (strengthened health and safety measures, international initiative for human rights in business and campaign for HIV/AIDS awareness in South African factories).

The Sustainability review provides an in-depth analysis of ABB?s sustainability performance in 2003, according to the GRI Guidelines. Page one of the Sustainability review includes a "Content and GRI reference matrix." Environmental and social performances are assessed on pages 14 through 22 of the review, following the GRI guidelines in details.

To monitor and report performance, ABB has global network of some 450 sustainability controllers and officers responsible for implementing the company''s sustainability policies and systems to meet group objectives, and for auditing and reporting performance annually by means of a formal intranet-based system. The data is then consolidated and checked against GRI definitions at group level, verified by the independent accreditation society Det Norske Veritas (DNV) and published in the Sustainability review (see the statement by Det Norske Veritas on page 26).

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ABB?s triple bottom line performance, as covered in the Sustainability review, has been verified by independent external organizations. The data reported in the economic performance section (pages 12?13) comprises extracts from ABB?s Annual Report 2003, audited by statutory auditors Ernst & Young AG. The environmental and social sections (pages 14 ?17, and 18 ?22) have been verified by the independent verification body, Det Norske Veritas, whose statement appears on page 26.

The Sustainability review describes ABB''s stakeholder engagement, describing how the company identifies its stakeholders, how it consults with them, the type of information generated by consultations and the use of such information (see page 5 of the Sustainability review).