Companies should disclose information on their environmental track record in annual reports and communicate it in a manner accessible to the public, according to judges for this year's ACCA Ireland Environmental Reporting Awards.

Mr Donal Buckley, environment executive with IBEC, said environmental disclosures should be clearly stated in annual reports and should not be confined to "good news" but also cover areas where a company's performance could be better.

Speaking as a member of the ACCA awards judging panel, he said the three key elements of an excellent report were completeness, credibility and communication. The judges also recommended that reports should be verified independently.

The premier award for 2002 was won by the Musgrave Group, which claims to be the first company in the world to produce an environmental and social accountability report in line with new guidelines agreed at the recent Johannesburg Summit.

The report covers the grocery distribution company's economic, environmental and social performance over the past year. Mr Seamus Scally, Musgrave Group's managing director, said it had made substantial savings by moving towards best practice on the environment, especially in waste management, where it has already achieved a recycling rate of 55 per cent. Commendations were awarded to Northern Ireland Electricity, Novartis Ringaskiddy and Thermo King Europe. Other contenders included Bórd na Móna, Coillte Teoranta, CRH, the ESB, the National Roads Authority, Roche Ireland and the Smurfit Group.

ACCA Ireland, the Irish branch of the Association of Certified Accountants, introduced the awards scheme in 2001 to identify and reward innovative attempts to communicate corporate environmental performance.