The company’s environmental management programme now includes operations in more than 50 countries, with Vietnam and Bulgaria the newest members. It has implemented the ISO 14001 standard in 98% of its manufacturing and service sites.

Highlights of year for ABB included the launch of a programme called Access to Electricity, through which the company is looking at getting small-scale power generation technologies to the world’s poorest regions. Another initiative started in 2001, was a corporate research and development programme focused on sustainability.