Corp. Sustainability Award

ABB Ltd
7 November 2000


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 ABB named corporate sustainability leader

 ABB tops industry index for second year in a row 

Zurich, Switzerland, November 7, 2000 - Global technology group ABB said today
that it has been named number one in corporate sustainability among the electric
equipment industry by the SAM Sustainability Group. This is the second year in a
row that ABB has been included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Group Index at
the top of its category.

The companies on the index - widely regarded as a benchmark for financial
products based on the concept of corporate sustainability - cut across industry
groups and are culled from many countries around the world. Fund managers, for
example, refer to the index to measure a company's performance and to gauge
long-term shareholder value creation.

'The DJSGI has been designed to provide investors and industry with a neutral,
rigorous and transparent measurement of sustainability performance,' said Ivo
Knoepfel, head of Rating and Index Research, SAM Sustainability Group. 'It not
only tells them where they stand in terms of their economic, environmental and
social performance, but also how far they have come,' and where they should
continue to push.

SAM's rating system also looks for companies that implement recycling criteria
into product design and efficiency improvement, involve local stakeholders in
the planning of large construction projects, and transfer technology to emerging
countries. Social performance aspects form a significant part of the assessment.

'We are pleased that our efforts are recognized,' said Goran Lindahl, President
and CEO of ABB. 'This ranking acknowledges the fine work that is done throughout
our global organization - in ABB sustainability is a core value for all our
activities.'

SAM acknowledged ABB's environmental policy, which is based on the principles of
the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Charter, and its environmental
management system, which is ISO 14001 certified. Together with environmental
product declarations, ABB invested US$ 865 million on research and development
and US$ 1,212 million on order-related development activities, for a total of
some eight percent of Group revenues in 1999. 

ABB's technology innovations during that time included advances in
molecular-scale nano-technologies, developments in transformer technology, and
robot-based automation processes. In power transmission and power distribution,
ABB is increasingly focused on alternative energy and small-scale distributed
power generation, fuel cells and microturbines.

The review is based on the annual reassessment of the corporate sustainability
performance of the largest 2,000 companies in the Dow Jones Global Indexes, from
61 industry groups in 27 countries. It selects 236 companies, representing the
top ten percent sustainability companies worldwide, which have a total market
capitalization of approximately US$ 5.5 trillion (as of August 31, 2000). The
review includes analyzing media coverage and responses to crises and potential
crises. SAM continues to track company performance throughout the year.

The ABB Group (www.abb.com) serves customers in power transmission and
distribution; automation; oil, gas, and petrochemicals; building technologies;
and in financial services. With novel IT applications, tailored software
solutions, growing eBusiness and a fast-expanding knowledge and service base,
ABB is building links to the new economy. The ABB Group employs about 160,000
people in more than 100 countries.