ABB: Providing "Access to Electricity"

Taking the three dimensions - social, environmental and economic performance into account was called The Triple Bottom Line Approach, and this formed part of its annual sustainability report (Refer Exhibit II to know about ABB's evolution into a company with a triple bottom Line approach).

The social policy at ABB was guided by regular stakeholder dialogs at the company headquarters and at the regional levels where it operated. The social policy was implemented after conducting stakeholder dialog sessions to test it and seek ways to implement it and measure its performance. The dialog process started in January 2002 and the sessions were conducted in 43 countries.

The framework of ABB's social policy was based on the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Labor Organization's fundamental principles on rights at work, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the Social Accountability 8000 (SA 8000) standard, and an auditable standard for the protection of workers' rights developed by the Social Accountability International (SAI).⁶ Sustainable performance at ABB had the four objectives - improving the company's financial performance, extending its environmental management practices, implementing its new social policy, and supporting electrification projects to promote economic development.