Water For People shortlisted for US $1M Rio Tinto Prize for Sustainability

March 2, 2009
By Peter Mason

Water For People has been short listed for the US$1M Rio Tinto Prize for Sustainability 2008, which is awarded annually by an international Adjudication Panel of distinguished sustainability experts.

The global US$1M Rio Tinto Prize for Sustainability is open to all not-for-profit, civil society and non-government organisations working to advance the goals of economic, environmental and social sustainability.

Rio Tinto global head of Health, Safety & Environment Elaine Dorward-King said Rio Tinto’s association with the Prize, through its acquisition of Alcan in 2007, provided Rio Tinto with an opportunity to demonstrate its ongoing commitment to sustainable development.

“For some time now, we have focused on integrating sustainable development considerations into our business plans and decision making processes at Rio Tinto. We believe performance across economic, social and environmental considerations is critical to sustaining not only our long term success, but also the world’s long term sustainability. We congratulate the short listed organisations for their achievements in meeting the economic, social and environmental challenges faced globally,” she said. 

To facilitate an inclusive, rigorous and transparent management process for the award of the Prize, Rio Tinto partners with the International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) which manages the entries and selection process. IBLF engages independent sustainability experts from around the world to ensure the process and decisions are made in an objective and consistent manner. Rio Tinto does not participate in the assessment process.

An international Adjudication Panel comprised of sustainable development experts and chaired by Director of Guelph Institute for the Environment, University of Guelph, Canada, and Former Minister for Environment in Canada, David Anderson selected the ten short listed organisations. “The Prize received 117 entries from organisations throughout the world, working across a broad range of different and exciting initiatives. Having evaluated the entries, we believe we have ten short listed organisations which highlight the diversity and depth of talent, initiative and skills existing in the not-for-profit sector,” he said.

The Adjudication Panel will now conduct an in-depth review of the short listed organisations to select the winner of the Rio Tinto Prize. Nine short listed organisations receive a US$15,000 training grant to support training and development opportunities for the organisation. The winner of the Rio Tinto Prize for Sustainability 2008 will be announced in June. Further information about the short listed organisations can be found at www.riotintoprizeforsustainability.com

About Water For People
Founded in 1991, Water For People is a nonprofit international development organization that supports safe drinking water and sanitation projects in developing countries. Water For People partners with communities, local governments, and other nongovernmental organizations to help people improve their quality of life by supporting the development of locally sustainable drinking water resources, improved sanitation facilities, and hygiene education programs. Water For People supports communities with professional development advice, financial support and volunteer technical services. Typical technologies employed include protected spring-fed community water systems, gravity-fed systems, wells with hand pumps, latrine construction, operator training and hygiene education. Water For People is currently working in Latin America, Africa and Asia. In 2008, Water For People supported the provision of safe and sustainable drinking water resources benefiting 91,722 people in the developing world, sanitation facilities benefiting 92,983, and hygiene education benefiting 153,843 people. More information is available at www.waterforpeople.org.

About Rio Tinto
Rio Tinto is a leading international mining group headquartered in the UK, combining Rio Tinto plc, a London and NYSE listed public company, and Rio Tinto Limited, which is a public company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. Rio Tinto's business is finding, mining, and processing mineral resources. Major products are aluminium, copper, diamonds, energy (coal and uranium), gold, industrial minerals (borax, titanium dioxide, salt, talc) and iron ore. Activities span the world but are strongly represented in Australia and North America with significant businesses in South America, Asia, Europe and southern Africa.

About International Business Leaders Forum
The International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) is an independent, not-for-profit organisation which works with business, governments and civil society to enhance the contribution that companies can make to sustainable development. Since 1990, IBLF has worked in over 90 countries. Current areas of work include raising sustainable business standards, improving prospects for enterprise and employment, and enabling companies to contribute to health and human development issues.

IBLF provides strategic counsel to companies to enable them to understand and respond to the development challenges that they face, particularly when operating in transition and emerging economies.

For further information, please contact:

Water For People
Peter Mason
Phone: 720-488-4576
Email: pmason@waterforpeople.org
Website: www.waterforpeople.org

Rio Tinto Prize for Sustainability
Leesa Muirhead
Mobile: +44 (0) 7901 510 701
Email: Leesa.Muirhead@iblf.org
Website: www.iblf.org