This year, ACCA South Africa Sustainability Reporting Awards honoured De Beers as the ‘Overall Winner’ for its Report to Society 2009. ACCA South Africa noted that the report was “well ahead of all of the other submissions” and therefore decided to recognise De Beers as the “Overall Winner”. “De Beers is a world-class report in any jurisdiction on the planet. It could win awards in any country and in any sector,” ACCA announced at the awards. %% The judges at the awards highlighted the positives of the Report as: the report’s risk assessment framework, “stood out” and acted as a “cornerstone” of the report; the fact that the report “addresses stakeholder concerns directly”; the willingness of De Beers to “address sensitive issues such as blood diamonds”. %% This year’s awards is the third consecutive year for the Report to be recognised, but this time De Beers was placed in a category of its own as ACCA created a cross sector overall winner to recognise the achievement. This is the third De Beers Report to Society prepared, designed and produced with Maplecroft, a leading sustainability agency. %% Commenting on the Award, Dr James Suzman, Director of Public Affairs for De Beers said “We are delighted to be the recipients of such a prestigious Award. It’s a great endorsement of our approach to sustainability reporting. As we look forward to capitalising on the opportunities of economic recovery we will continue to focus on finding synergies between operating sustainably, meeting the expectations of our stakeholders, and meeting our commercial goals. In doing so, we intend to exemplify our commitment to ‘live up to diamonds’.”