Investment Community
Who are they?
These stakeholders include both mainstream financial analysts and Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) analysts. These analysts are located globally.
Interests and Concerns
The interests of our investment community are closely aligned to those of our shareholders in that they are broadly interested in ensuring that financial returns occur as a result of suitable Company performance and governance. Increasingly, long-term performance is becoming more of a focus, hence a greater desire to better understand governance mechanisms and the non-financial risks and mitigation measures of the organisation.
Dialogue
Our Investor Relations & Communications group is responsible for communicating with mainstream investment organisations. Typically, this involves briefing analysts on key issues.
Our Sustainable Development and Community Relations group is responsible for communicating with SRI analysts. The publication of our Sustainability Report is a cornerstone of this activity. In addition we hold an annual briefing for SRI analysts.
Socially Responsible Investors
During the year, we continued to participate in key external benchmarking initiatives by the SRI sector that seek to measure the Company's sustainable development performance against others in our sector.
Participating in such programs has a dual benefit. Not only do they enable fund managers to screen funds on the basis of Company systems and performance that support sustainability, but they also provide an external opinion on our sustainability performance in relation to others in our sector. They provide a useful tool internally to demonstrate where we are performing well and where we need to improve and, furthermore, they assist with supporting the business case for sustainability. The premise is that companies that manage their non-financial risks well also perform better in the long-term.
The following sections outline our performance over the period in some of the key benchmarking programs:
- FTSE4Good Index
- Dow Jones Sustainability Index
- Australian SAM Sustainability Index (AuSSI)
- Business in the Community – Corporate Responsibility Index
- Johannesburg Stock Exchange SRI Index
- Carbon Disclosure Project
FTSE4Good Index
Launched in 2001, the FTSE4Good
Index series has been designed to measure the performance of companies
that meet globally recognised corporate responsibility standards and to
facilitate investment in those companies. The series covers four markets:
US, Global, UK and Europe. Each market consists of both a benchmark and a tradable
index. Over the period, we maintained our inclusion in the UK FTSE4Good Index.
Dow Jones Sustainability World Indexes
The Dow
Jones Sustainability World Indexes (DJSI) consist of more than 300
companies that represent the top 10 per cent of the
leading sustainability companies in 60 industry
groups in the 34 countries covered by the biggest 2500 companies
in the Dow Jones Global Indexes. Following the recent results of the 2005 assessment, we have maintained inclusion
within the DJSI and ranked as Supersector Leader for Basic Resources within
the Dow Jones STOXX, and Sustainability Leader for Mining in both the DJSI World and DJSI STOXX. For further information, see our 2005
assessment.
Australian SAM Sustainability Index (AuSSI)
The AuSSI was launched in February 2005 as Australia's first index to measure the financial performance of the country's sustainability leaders. It comprises the top 40 per cent in terms of sustainability, out of 184 companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. Based on the methodology of SAM, it applies the same research criteria as the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes for which SAM selects sustainability leaders on a worldwide scale. BHP Billiton is listed as an industry leader for the Mining and Metals sector.
Business in the Community - Corporate Responsibility Index
Originally established in 2002 in the UK by Business
in the Community, the Corporate Responsibility Index was developed to
ensure a systematic approach to managing, measuring and reporting
upon the various impacts that companies have upon society and their environment.
The
index works as a management tool for companies to see how their corporate
responsibility activities are integrated into their mainstream
business operations.
In 2004, we ranked 14th overall, an improvement from 20th in 2003, with a score of 93%. In the Australian release of the index, utilising the same questionnaire and scoring system, we ranked third overall.
View our 2004 Corporate Responsibility Index Feedback Report (PDF 104 Kb) for further information.
In 2005, we were selected as the ‘Company of the Year’ at the Business in the Community Awards in the UK. These are the premier awards in the UK that support and encourage corporate social responsibility. We are the first company in the extractive industries to receive the award and are the first recipient acknowledged for its global activities.
Johannesburg Stock Exchange SRI Index
The JSE Socially Responsible Investment Index was launched in 2004. This was the culmination of an extensive consultation and development process which the JSE has guided over the past year as a means of helping to focus the debate on triple bottom line practices in South Africa. We maintained inclusion within the index.
Carbon Disclosure Project
The Carbon Disclosure Project is an institutional investors' survey of FT500 Global Index companies regarding risks and opportunities presented by climate change. Our 2004 survey response was assessed, and we were included in the 2004 Climate Leadership Index, comprising the 50 'best in-class' responses. The Carbon Disclosure Project report noted that we were the sole company in the metals and mining sector to be actively integrating carbon shadow prices into investment decisions involving investments with emissions over 100 000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year.
