ABB named corporate sustainability leader; ABB tops industry index for second year in a row.

Business & Technology Editors

ZURICH, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 7, 2000

Global technology group ABB said today that it has been named number one in corporate sustainability among the electric equipment industry by the SAM Sustainability Group.

This is the second year in a row that ABB has been included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Group Index at the top of its category.

The companies on the index - widely regarded as a benchmark for financial products based on the concept of corporate sustainability - cut across industry groups and are culled from many countries around the world. Fund managers, for example, refer to the index to measure a company's performance and to gauge long-term shareholder value creation.

"The DJSGI has been designed to provide investors and industry with a neutral, rigorous and transparent measurement of sustainability performance," said Ivo Knoepfel, head of Rating and Index Research, SAM Sustainability Group. "It not only tells them where they stand in terms of their economic, environmental and social performance, but also how far they have come," and where they should continue to push.

SAM's rating system also looks for companies that implement recycling criteria into product design and efficiency improvement, involve local stakeholders in the planning of large construction projects, and transfer technology to emerging countries. Social performance aspects form a significant part of the assessment.

"We are pleased that our efforts are recognized," said Goran Lindahl, President and CEO of ABB. "This ranking acknowledges the fine work that is done throughout our global organization - in ABB sustainability is a core value for all our activities."

SAM acknowledged ABB's environmental policy, which is based on the principles of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Charter, and its environmental management system, which is ISO 14001 certified. Together with environmental product declarations, ABB invested US$ 865 million on research and development and US$ 1,212 million on order-related development activities, for a total of some eight percent of Group revenues in 1999.

ABB's technology innovations during that time included advances in molecular-scale nano-technologies, developments in transformer technology, and robot-based automation processes. In power transmission and power distribution, ABB is increasingly focused on alternative energy and small-scale distributed power generation, fuel cells and microturbines.

The review is based on the annual reassessment of the corporate sustainability performance of the largest 2,000 companies in the Dow Jones Global Indexes, from 61 industry groups in 27 countries. It selects 236 companies, representing the top ten percent sustainability companies worldwide, which have a total market capitalization of approximately US$ 5.5 trillion (as of August 31, 2000). The review includes analyzing media coverage and responses to crises and potential crises. SAM continues to track company performance throughout the year.

The ABB Group (www.abb.com) serves customers in power transmission and distribution; automation; oil, gas, and petrochemicals; building technologies; and in financial services. With novel IT applications, tailored software solutions, growing eBusiness and a fast-expanding knowledge and service base, ABB is building links to the new economy. The ABB Group employs about 160,000 people in more than 100 countries.