At BHP Billiton, we take our commitment to sustainable development seriously. The BHP Billiton Charter states, ‘Our purpose is to create long-term value through the discovery, development and conversion of natural resources ...’.
However, value is not limited to financial returns. The Charter recognises that, ‘We are successful in creating value when:
- our shareholders are realising a superior return on their investment
- our customers and suppliers are benefiting from our business relationships
- the communities in which we operate value our citizenship
- every employee starts each day with a sense of purpose and ends each day with a sense of accomplishment’.
While we recently announced a record profit that has been recognised by the financial market and reflected in our share price, it saddens me to report that in terms of one of our key measures of success, that of zero fatalities, we have failed. Seventeen of our work colleagues have lost their lives during this fiscal year. This toll on human life and the impact on family, friends and associates is profound, enduring and extremely concerning for myself, our senior executives, our fellow employees, the Board and the entire BHP Billiton family.
Our commitment to the Charter remains as strong as the day it was created. When we demonstrate the creation of value across all facets of our business and confidently provide a workplace that delivers Zero Harm, we will be truly successful.
We are constantly working on determining what causes harm and what needs to be done to create a hazard-free workplace. It is vital that we go back to the fundamentals of safety management and that we continue to explore all of the assumptions and learnings on which we base our safety protocols and standards. The entire management team understands this imperative and their personal commitment and performance is being taken into account in their performance reviews. I look forward to reporting strong progress in this area in our future reports.
On a positive note, I am pleased to report that we have continued to progress soundly in the other dimensions of sustainable development. I encourage you to read our case studies, which provide some concrete examples of how we are putting policy into practice. Our internal HSEC Awards program has again been highly successful in promoting and recognising outstanding HSEC performance and innovation across the Group. It provides a strong indicator of the extent to which individuals within our operations are contributing to our sustainability aspirations.
We have been delighted over the past year to again receive external recognition for our performance in public reporting, community relationships and sustainable development. This recognition reflects the tremendous efforts of a great many people from both within the Company and our host communities who have helped us progress in these areas.
The Full HSEC Report on our website has been prepared in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative 2002 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines and represents a balanced and reasonable presentation of our organisation’s economic, environmental and social performance. A printed summary report has also been made available due to the strong support we received from our stakeholders for this initiative last year.
At BHP Billiton, the long-term, stable nature of our business means we have the capacity to plan for and meet the challenges that will arise as we contribute to sustainable development at the local, regional and global level. We have made significant progress towards sustainability, and we will continue to focus on the creation of value for our shareholders and our stakeholders.
Chip Goodyear
Chief Executive Officer
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