2.9 Sustainable Development - Health, Safety, Environment and Community

One of our strategic drivers ‘Licence to operate’, recognises the intrinsic link between sound sustainability performance and long-term business viability. We aspire to Zero Harm for our people, our host communities and the environment and strive to achieve leading industry practice. Sound principles to govern safety, business conduct, social, environmental and economic activities are integral to the way we do business. As a global company, operating in many different countries, we are subject to extensive regulation surrounding health and safety of our people and the environment. We make every effort to comply with the regulations and, where less stringent than our standards, exceed applicable legal and other requirements. We have a number of systems and supporting documents to implement our commitment to sustainable development. The Sustainability Committee of the Board continues to oversee the Group’s sustainability strategy, policy, initiatives and activities. Management holds responsibility for our Health, Safety, Environment and Community performance and for driving our commitment to Zero Harm.

Our Charter highlights that we care as much about how results are obtained as we do about delivering good results. Our Health, Safety, Environment and Community Management Standards provide the basis for developing and applying management systems at all levels of our Company and are a driver of our contribution to sustainable development.

The Standards highlight four key components of sustainable development:

  • Health – promoting and improving the health of our people and host communities.
  • Safety – providing a workplace where people can work without being injured.
  • Environment – promoting efficient resource use, reducing and preventing pollution and enhancing biodiversity protection.
  • Community – engaging with employees and contractors and with those affected by our operations, including host communities; and understanding, promoting and upholding fundamental human rights within our sphere of influence.

Health

The health of our people is central to our business success. Our major challenge centres on reducing or eliminating occupational health exposures to airborne contaminants and noise. Such exposures currently necessitate the strict use of personal protective equipment to avoid adverse health effects. Malaria and HIV/AIDs remain a significant health issue for many of our operations, including those in South Africa, southern Mozambique and Pakistan, and areas where we have development activities such as Guinea and Angola. We continue to work to find the most effective ways to help address them, including offering voluntary HIV/AIDS testing and counselling and continuing to support a mosquito spraying program in southern Africa.

Safety

We experienced 11 fatalities in seven separate incidents during the year to 30 June 2008. We remain determined to do all in our power to eliminate fatalities from our operations. Our Fatal Risk Control Protocols continue to direct attention to identified risk areas and risk mitigation activities. While low injury frequency rates do not mean low fatality rates, we are pleased to report that, during FY2008, we improved our injury performance rate. Our Total Recordable Injury Frequency rate per one million hours worked decreased by 20 per cent, from 7.4 for FY2008 to 5.9. Our injury severity rate also reduced by some 20 per cent in FY2008 when compared to FY2007.

Environment

Mining, by its nature impacts the environment. Our operations are subject to various national and regional laws and regulations governing environmental protection, rehabilitation and closure. In line with our aspirational Zero Harm goal we run programs to improve our performance, set specific targets, such as for water consumption, land rehabilitation, energy use and air emissions, and track our progress against our targets. We believe that the risks of climate change associated with increasing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere need to be addressed through accelerated action. Behavioural change, innovation and technological progress are necessary to achieve stabilisation in a manner consistent with meeting natural resource and energy needs. We are working within our businesses and with governments, industry and other stakeholders to address this global challenge and find lasting solutions that are consistent with our goal of Zero Harm.

There were no reported significant environmental incidents in FY2008 as defined in the BHP Billiton HSEC consequence severity matrix.

Community

Our social licence to operate depends on our ability to operate all aspects of our business responsibly, including our ability to work effectively with our host communities. Regular, open and honest dialogue is the key to building strong relationships. Our community relations professionals are charged with developing and nurturing relationships with people impacted by, and interested in, our operations so we can understand their concerns, hopes and aspirations.

While our businesses tailor their community relations programs to suit the local context, our Health, Safety, Environment and Community Management Standards provide direction as to the critical activities that must be implemented by all our operations. For example, our sites are required to have community relations plans in place and to regularly review the effectiveness of communication, consultation and participation processes in collaboration with stakeholders.

The Australian Energy Efficiency Opportunities (EEO) Program

The Australian government passed the EEO Act in 2006 to improve the identification and evaluation of energy efficiency opportunities by large energy using businesses and to encourage implementation of cost-effective energy efficiency opportunities.

During the past year, our Australian assets covered under the EEO program rigorously reviewed their energy consumption data and fully evaluated their opportunities for energy savings projects. More than 400 opportunities have been identified, with some 30 per cent either identified for implementation or being implemented. The remainder of opportunities are under investigation. The nature of opportunities for energy savings range from purchasing and installing new, more efficient equipment to improving maintenance and engineering processes.

Opportunities for working with local communities to raise awareness on how residents and businesses can use less energy have also been considered. The results of this program will be available publicly on the BHP Billiton website in December 2008. It is expected that applying what we have learned from the Australian EEO sites will contribute to our strategy for meeting our energy intensity target on a global basis.