Chelsea achieves top ethical accolade

The Ethical Company Accreditation Scheme has awarded Chelsea Building Society a top award for its ethical status.

The Good Shopping Guide, published by the Ethical Company Organisation, offers consumers information about the ethical performance of over 700 brands in the UK. It is the only ethical shopping guide of its kind and Chelsea, the UK's fifth largest building society, feature highly in the Good Money section under Banks and Building Societies.

With a ‘top score' of 81 out of 100, Chelsea beat the majority of its building society peers. The score was given after the Ethical Company Organisation had reviewed Chelsea's 2007 Corporate Responsibility (CR) report against various criteria including irresponsible lending, environmental devastation and environmental reporting.

Speaking about the accreditation Liz Artner, Corporate Responsibility Manager said "We are so proud to achieve this award. It is great to obtain third party endorsement of how far our CR programme has come this year".

"This accreditation comes at the same time as we launch our new 2008 Corporate Responsibility report this week. The report can be downloaded from our website dedicated to CR chelseacares.co.uk and through our main website thechelsea.co.uk. It's the third CR report launched by Chelsea and explains what we do and shows how we've moved on since our previous report" commented Artner.

This report examines in detail the key areas of Marketplace, Workplace, Community and Environment, highlighting the importance organisations should place on being a responsible business and employer. Areas such as Treating Customers Fairly, Chelsea Building Society Charitable Foundation, volunteering and its commitment to community groups are all featured.