Community management
Refer to the following sections to review our progress in environmental management.
- Corporate community leadership
- Employee Matched Giving Program
- Indigenous culture and heritage
- Community Relations Network
- Corporate foundations
- Ok Tedi
For a better understanding of our challenges in this area, refer to our sustainability challenge on Sustainable community development and closure.
Corporate community leadership
In January 2004, the Company participated in Oxfam Community Aid Abroad’s third Corporate Community Leadership Program (CCLP) in Orissa, India. Aiming to increase understanding of social issues relating to large-scale infrastructure projects, the program involved ten employees from across the Company, and for the first time also involved three participants from Newmont Mining.
Over a two-week period, participants were exposed to various development projects and the impact they have had on local communities. For further details refer to our case study: Corporate Community Leadership Program aims to further our understanding of issues.
Now that the CCLP has been operating for three years, Oxfam Community Aid Abroad will undertake an independent review and evaluation of the program and determine whether it will continue to be offered in the future.
Employee Matched Giving Program
The second pilot phase of the Employee Matched Giving Program was implemented in South Africa, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. The program aims to strengthen local communities by supporting and encouraging employees who volunteer, fundraise or donate to not-for-profit organisations. During 2004, the company contributed over US$220 000 to 140 not-for-profit organisations as part of this program.
Indigenous culture and heritage
The Company recognises and respects the importance of indigenous people’s culture, heritage and traditional rights and supports the identification, recording, management and protection of indigenous cultural heritage sites.
Indigenous cultural heritage is broadly defined to include matters that are significant to either indigenous people or under legislation, such as dreaming, ceremonial, sacred and burial sites; archaeological sites where evidence of the past occupation and use by indigenous people can be found; more contemporary historic sites; and traditional knowledge. We recognise that indigenous people have a vital role to play in identifying and properly managing cultural heritage, especially where it could be affected by our activities.
Our management systems and standards require that operations and projects undertake early consultations and assessments with indigenous people to ascertain whether proposed activities are likely to impact cultural heritage values and, in conjunction with indigenous people, how best to plan and undertake those activities to avoid or minimise such impacts.
Once a site, place or area is identified as significant, it is recorded so as to facilitate long-term planning and to ensure that it is not interfered with in a way that is contrary to the agreed management regime.
Examples of how we work with indigenous communities where cultural heritage is involved can be found in Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow – Our Community Programs Report (see www.bhpbilliton.com/bbContentRepository/Reports/CommunityReport.pdf).
Community Relations Network
A Community Relations Network has been established within the Company to facilitate and encourage communication between professionals with community responsibilities. Within our smaller businesses, there is usually only one community relations professional. These employees can feel isolated. The Community Relations Network addresses this issue and provides each person with easy access to 180 people across the Company with whom questions can be raised, experiences shared and advice and opinions sought. All members are encouraged to actively use the network to ensure that the information flow is multi-directional rather than one-way from the Corporate centre. An electronic newsletter alerting the network of the latest social responsibility news, articles and resources is distributed every two months as a professional development tool and to help build the capacity of the community relations discipline.
Corporate foundations
Our operations manage their community support on a local level, using the HSEC management system as the framework for their program implementation. Many of our operations have chosen to manage their community contributions through a corporate foundation structure. These foundations vary in their maturity; some have been functioning for over ten years, and others have only been recently established. We are undertaking a study of these foundations in an attempt to determine whether it is the most effective way to deliver community programs, keeping in mind the diversity of countries and cultures in which we operate. The information will be available to all our businesses to assist them to make informed decisions about the local management of their own community programs. The intent is to produce an HSEC Guideline that will:
- identify advantages and disadvantages of operating community programs through a foundation structure
- provide guidance to businesses on the considerations that should be taken into account when deciding whether to establish a foundation
- outline best practices and lessons learned from existing foundations.
Ok Tedi
In February 2002, BHP Billiton divested its 52 per cent shareholding in Ok Tedi Mining Limited (OTML) into PNG Sustainable Development Program (PNGSDP) Ltd. All of the dividends from the divested shareholding now go to PNGSDP Ltd, a Singapore-based company which is independent of OTML and the PNG Government and whose purpose is to fund short-term and long-term sustainable development projects in Papua New Guinea, enabling a direct return of the funds to the people of Papua New Guinea and the Western Province.
At the end of December 2003, PNGSDP Ltd completed the first full year of operation, and its three funds – the Long Term Fund, the Development Fund and the General Fund – totalled US$64.4 million.
PNGSDP Ltd’s first sustainable development projects are expected to begin before the end of 2004. Substantial progress should also be made in finalising the scope of development projects in rubber, palm oil, power, micro-finance, road infrastructure rehabilitation and communications within Western Province and other parts of Papua New Guinea. For further details, see our case study: PNG Sustainable Development Program Ltd completes first full year of operation.
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