Russia: ecological responsibility

The Russian branch of the ecological organisation WWF starts the work on the research "Contribution of Russian Business to sustainable development?. More than 300 huge Russian business companies are requested to inform about the ecological aspects of their activities. Representatives of WWF Russia declare that the image of Russian business worldwide is not very positive especially due to ecological concerns. This may affect the G8 where high attention is paid to questions of ecological sustainability but also to Russia's assessement through international finance institutions as World Bank or European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. International Rating agencies as "Standard and Poor's? or "Moody's? also put special attention to ecological aspect in their business assessment. The Russian Union of Entrepreneurs and Industry supports the initiative of the ecologists and emphasizes that this project will both contribute to a better position of Russia in international economic competition and to improve Russia's image in the world. Similar campaigns have been conducted through WWF before in Brasil, South Africa, China and India. www.wwf.org