Atradius White Paper Concludes That Businesses Should Take the Lead on Sustainability

AMSTERDAM, November 12 - A white paper, produced by leading global credit insurer Atradius, and
launched today at the European Parliament in Brussels, contains strong
recommendations for both governments and businesses.

The white paper, entitled 'Is sustainability incompatible with business
growth?', concludes that the commercial benefits for businesses of adopting
sustainable processes, as a central pillar of their business strategies, far
outweigh the cost.

But, in the run-up to next months UN climate change conference in
Copenhagen, the paper is also critical of some of the measures that came out
of the last such conference, as laid down in the Kyoto Protocol, which, it
says, will not change the behaviour of polluting industries but simply
provide a get-out clause for them to continue to pollute. In particular,
Atradius describes carbon trading as a way for businesses to continue to
pollute, for a fee, without addressing the real issue - the need for a real
and lasting change in polluting behaviour.

"The essential message of our white paper", explains Atradius' CEO
Isidoro Unda, "is that sustainability isn't a barrier to commercial growth,
but genuinely provides major commercial benefits. Our own experience has
shown this, as has that of the leading businesses that have contributed their
experience to our research. Even in its simplest form, sustainability results
in substantial cost savings, as businesses reap the rewards of recycling and
energy efficiency. But beyond that, as consumers become much more aware of
the need to protect the environment, they are increasingly gravitating
towards those suppliers who demonstrate their 'green' credentials, and that's
good for sales and brand perception."

The white paper can be downloaded from www.atradius.com

About Atradius:

The Atradius Group provides trade credit insurance, surety and
collections services worldwide, and has a presence in 42 countries. Its
products and services aim to reduce its customers' exposure to buyers who
fail to pay for the products and services they buy. With total revenues of
more than EUR 1.8 billion and a 31% share of the global trade credit
insurance market, its products help protect companies throughout the world
from payment risks associated with selling products and services on credit.
With 160 offices, it has access to credit information on 52 million companies
worldwide and makes more than 22,000 trade credit limit decisions daily.

www.atradius.com

For further information: Atradius Corporate Communications, Christine Gerryn, Tel: +31-20-553-2047, E-mail: christine.gerryn at atradius.com