Our Sustainability Challenges
Our sustainability challenges are those issues that we believe may have a material impact on our ability to be a successful business. We recognise that these impacts can directly affect our shareholders, our employees, the communities in which we operate and, more generally, the broader society and the natural environment.
Our sustainable development activities are continually evolving as we learn from experience and interaction with all our stakeholders. They are, and will remain, deeply rooted in our corporate strategy, as evidenced by our Sustainable Development Policy and our public commitment to various corporate responsibility initiatives and internationally agreed standards, including the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights and United Nations Global Compact.
In 2004, we identified five broad issues that we believe will have a material impact on our ability to be a successful business.
These issues were presented to our Forum on Corporate Responsibility for debate and consideration, resulting in a consolidated list of the top five sustainability challenges having relevance and material impact across all our operations and locations:
- Elliminating Fatal Risks
- Occupational and Community Health
- Greenhouse Gas Emissions
- Access to and Management of Resources
- Sustainable Community Development and Closure of Operations.
The challenges are not in order of importance and require parallel action.
In 2006 the challenges were reviewed through stakeholder dialogues and discussions with our employees and the Forum on Corporate Responsibility. While their continued relevance was confirmed, their scope was expanded to more accurately reflect the nature of the issues we face.
