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Fiji Water is among 12 finalists named for the 2010 US Secretary of State's Award for Corporate Excellence.
Announcing the finalists in Washington DC, Robert D. Hormats, the Under Secretary for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs said that since 1999, the Department of State had used the awards to recognise American companies who are global leaders in corporate social responsibility.
“U.S. businesses are nominated by our ambassadors on every continent. This year we received a record – 78 nominations. I believe this is a testament to the growing role American firms are playing in advancing good corporate citizenship and democratic principles,” said Hormats.
The other finalists are:
• Alta Ventures in Mexico
• Cisco Systems in Israel
• Coca-Cola in Swaziland
• Denimatrix in Guatemala
• GE in India
• Intel in Costa Rica
• Mars, Inc., in Ghana
• PepsiCo in India
• Qualcomm in China
• Synopsys in Armenia
• Tang Energy in China
The finalists had demonstrated that “doing well” and “doing good” are not mutually exclusive said Hormats.
“And you have shown that when companies treat their communities as well as their customers, we are all enriched.”
The Fiji Water brand is controlled by American billionaires Stewart and Lynda Rae Resnick. The first bottles were shipped to the United States in 1997 with the brand eventually becoming available in Europe and beyond, becoming a key foreign exchange earner for Fiji.
By Richard Naidu
