SGS Announces Support of Global Climate Expedit...

Corporate news announcement processed and transmitted by Hugin ASA.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this 
announcement. 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------    



Corporate news announcement processed and transmitted by Hugin ASA.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this 
announcement. 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------    




      Climbing every mountain is easier with the right support

Geneva - 30 May 2008 - SGS, the world's leading inspection, testing,
certification and verification company, today announced its support
of TOPtoTOP, a global climate expedition aiming to summit the highest
peak on each continent and travelling between them using only human
power and the forces of nature.

TOPtoTOP's expedition seeks to raise awareness of climate change and
to show that great goals and progress can be achieved in balance with
nature. SGS joins other organisations including the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) and Victorinox, the famous Swiss knife
manufacturer in their backing of this initiative.

"We are delighted to be backing TOPtoTOP on their global expedition.
This is a serious commitment by our company to help focus attention
on one of the most important issues facing society and business
today. Our experience in helping customers all over the world address
their sustainability in the context of environmental certification
and compliance, such as our Global Climate Change Programme, mirrors
perfectly our commitment to TOPtoTOP," said Chris Kirk, chief
executive officer of SGS.

The TOPtoTOP global climate expedition began in 2002 and was followed
shortly by the successful ascent of Mt. Blanc in France, the highest
peak in Europe.  Since that time, TOPtoTOP has travelled from Europe
to North Africa then South America and is currently in Australia
after crossing the South Pacific.

"SGS is our ideal partner! We are very excited about our partnership
with SGS and I know that their expertise in a wide variety of areas,
especially in climate change, will prove useful in our expedition. We
look forward to working with the team from SGS," said Dario Schwörer
of TOPtoTOP.

Many SGS services address the challenges and issues that TOPtoTOP
raise in their global climate expedition. The SGS Global Climate
Change Programme offers a wide variety of services for the carbon
market that address mandatory and voluntary reporting of greenhouse
gas emissions. SGS Wind Energy Services support all aspects of wind
farm development and certification, protecting investment and
ensuring optimal delivery of renewable sources of energy.
With governmental introduction of sustainability standards for
biofuels, SGS works with customers to meet regulatory requirements
and to ensure biofuels have a positive effect on the environment. SGS
is the global leader in management system certification  including
environmental certification standards, social accountability
standards and in the verification of corporate social responsibility
report statements.
"For our customers around the world, there are strategic and
competitive drivers to voluntarily report and reduce greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions. These include voluntary early action to reduce
emissions for companies that may face mandatory regulation in the
future; competitive advantages through the provision of emission
neutral products and services and pressure from governments and
customers who want to know the extent of emissions embedded in both
products and the supply chain of the products they source.
Independent verification of any GHG commitment by a third party such
as SGS is necessary to retain credibility when talking to regulators,
customers and consumers," said Robert Dornau, director of SGS's
Global Climate Change Programme.

                                # # #

About TOPtoTOP
TOPtoTOP is a global climate expedition travelling the seven seas and
climbing each continent's highest peak using only human and nature's
power to raise awareness about climate change. For more information,
visit www.toptotop.org

About SGS
SGS is the world's leading inspection, verification, testing and
certification company. SGS is recognised as the global benchmark for
quality and integrity. With more than 50,000 employees, SGS operates
a network of over 1,000 offices and laboratories around the world. To
learn more, visit www.sgs.com

For further information, please contact:

Francoise Rein              Dario Schwörer
SGS SA, 1 place des Alpes   P: [phone]
CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland Sat.P: 00872 7625 68 933
T: [phone]          E: [e-mail]
M: [phone]          Current position of expedition on:
E: [e-mail]   www.toptotop.org


Additional Information

TOPtoTOP
TOPtoTOP is lead by Dario Schwörer, a climatologist and international
ski and mountain guide and his wife Sabine, a nurse. They decided to
embark on this voyage when they saw the impact climate change was
having in the Alps. Through their voyage and interaction with school
children, they hope to raise awareness about the dangers of climate
change, encourage climate protection and demonstrate that one can
enjoy nature through sport but at the same time give something back
to nature. Most recently back from scaling Mt Kosciusko in Australia,
their next challenge is to climb Mt Everest in Asia, Kilimanjaro in
Africa, Denali in North America and again tackle Mt Vinson in
Antarctica before returning to Europe to close the expedition by
climbing Mt. Blanc once more.

To date, TOPtoTOP has travelled 46,000 kilometres by boat, climbed
200,000 vertical meters, and cycled 8,000 kilometres. At the close of
2007 they had visited over 20,000 school students, and cleaned up
over 15 tonnes of waste working with local initiatives.

The Partnership
SGS's support of TOPtoTOP mirrors its commitment to its customers to
help them operate in a more sustainable manner by improving quality
and productivity, reducing risk, verifying compliance and increasing
speed to market.

"SGS is both a Swiss and a global organisation like TOPtoTOP. SGS
sees global climate change as the challenge for our generation like
we do. The SGS Climate Change Programme is recognised as the leader
in verification of GHG emissions and it is planned to do some testing
under extreme conditions on board the expedition sailboat. TOPtoTOP
under the patronage of the United Nations Environment Program and
Switzerland is very proud that SGS will join Victorinox as a major
sponsor," said Dario Schwörer of TOPtoTOP.


 
--- End of Message ---

SGS
1 place des Alpes<br>P.O. Box 2152 Geneva 1 Switzerland

WKN: 
870264; ISIN: CH0002497458; Index: SMCI, SMI, SMIEXP, SPI;
Listed: Main Market in SWX Swiss Exchange;