The wellbeing of our people, the community and the environment is considered in everything that we do. 

We set clear accountabilities in relation to sustainability. 

Our FY2019 sustainability performance¹

Footnotes

(1) FY2017 and FY2018 data includes Continuing and Discontinued operations (Onshore US assets).

(2) FY2019 data includes Discontinued operations (Onshore US assets) to 28 February 2019 and Continuing operations.

(3) The sum of (fatalities + lost-time cases + restricted work cases + medical treatment cases) multiplied by 1 million ÷ actual hours worked by our employees and contractors. Stated in units of  per million hours worked. We adopt the US Government’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration Guidelines for the recording and reporting of occupational injuries and illnesses.

(4) FY2018 TRIF data includes Continuing and Discontinued operations (Onshore US assets).

(5) FY2019 TRIF data includes Discontinued operations (Onshore US assets) to 28 February 2019 and Continuing operations.

(6) For exposures exceeding our FY2017 baseline occupational exposure limits discounting the use of personal protective equipment, where required. The baseline exposure profile (as at  30 June 2017) is derived through a combination of quantitative exposure measurements and qualitative assessments undertaken by specialist occupational hygienists consistent with  best practice as defined by the American Industrial Hygiene Association.

(7) New FY2017 baseline due to the removal of 98 exposures attributed to the Petroleum Onshore US assets.

(8) Data excludes Discontinued operations (Onshore US assets).

(9) A significant event, resulting from BHP operated activities, is one with a severity rating of four and above, based on our internal severity rating scale (tiered from one to five by increasing severity) as defined in the revised Our Requirements for Risk Management standard.

(10) Our voluntary social investment is calculated as 1 per cent of the average of the previous three years’ pre-tax profit.

(11) Expenditure includes BHP’s equity share for operated and non-operated joint ventures, and comprises cash, administrative costs, including costs to facilitate the operation of the BHP Foundation.

(12) FY2017 and FY2018 social investment figures include Continuing operations and Discontinued operations (Onshore US assets).

(13) FY2019 social investment figure includes Discontinued operations (Onshore US assets) to 31 October 2018 and Continuing operations.

(14) Comparison calculated on a Continuing operations basis. The FY2017 baseline has been adjusted for the divestment of our Onshore US assets to ensure onoing comparability of performance.

(15)  With the use of carbon o¤sets, as required.

(16) FY2018 GHG data includes Continuing operations and Discontinued operations (Onshore US assets).

(17) FY2019 GHG data includes Discontinued operations (Onshore US assets) to 31 October 2018 and Continuing operations.

(18) The FY2017 baseline data has been adjusted to account for the materiality of the strike a¤ecting water withdrawals at Escondida in FY2017 and improvements to water balance methodologies at WAIO and Queensland Coal in FY2019. Discontinued operations (Onshore US assets) have been excluded.

(19) Where ‘withdrawal’ is defined as water withdrawn and intended or use (in accordance with ‘A Practical Guide to Consistent Water Reporting’, ICMM (2017)). ‘Freshwater’ is defined as waters other than sea water, waste water from third parties and hypersaline ground water. Freshwater withdrawal also excludes entrained water that would not be available for other uses. These exclusions have been made to align with the target’s intent to reduce the use of freshwater sources subject to competition from other users or the environment.

Building an enabled culture to support BHP’s transformation

Our annual Engagement and Perception Survey (EPS) is an important tool to gauge our culture.

Our employees told us they feel proud to work at BHP and described the work environment as collaborative and inclusive. They have the confidence to make decisions required to do their job well and believe they have opportunities for professional and personal development.

Developing our capabilities

We believe that the changing nature of work presents significant opportunity for BHP. Our approach is to invest in new skills so our people are ready for the jobs of the future.

Over the past five years, we have invested in developing leadership capability, as these qualities are critical to guiding our people and navigating changes to the work environment.

Inclusion and diversity

We believe our people should have the opportunity to fulfil their potential and thrive in an inclusive and diverse workplace. In our experience inclusion and diversity promotes safety, productivity and wellbeing within BHP and underpins our ability to attract new employees.

Gender balance

We have an aspirational goal to achieve gender balance globally by CY2025. In FY2019 we increased the representation of women working at BHP by 2.1 per cent, resulting in 1,156 more female employees than the same time in FY2018. Our overall representation of women is 24.5 per cent.⁽¹⁾

In FY2019, the percentage of people newly hired to work for BHP was 62.3 per cent male and 37.7 per cent female. This female representation outcome is a marked increase when compared to FY2015 (10.4 per cent).

Indigenous employment

In communities in which we operate, we aim to provide employment opportunities that contribute to sustainable social and economic benefits for Indigenous peoples. For information on our approach to Indigenous employment and our performance to date, refer to the Indigenous peoples section.

LGBT+ inclusion

We want to provide a safe, inclusive and supportive workplace for everyone at BHP. Jasper is BHP’s employee inclusion group for our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and others (LGBT+) community and its allies.

We rolled out LGBT+ inclusion awareness and education sessions across all Minerals Australia operations in FY2019, with plans to extend to our operations and offices in FY2020.

Flexible working

Flexible work supports the diversity and wellness of our workforce. Some 41 per cent of our people worked flexibly in FY2019 and we continue to educate our workforce about flexible working at BHP.

Working with suppliers

We continue to work with our suppliers on ensuring their products and services are suitable for a diverse workforce, as well as encouraging diversity in their own work teams. In FY2019, where practicable, we also introduced inclusion and diversity incentives into our supply contracts.

Employee relations

The culture of care and trustful relationships is a fundamental principle of our employee relations strategy. The three key focus areas for employee relations at BHP has continued to be:

• ensure BHP complies with legal obligations and regional labour regulations;
• negotiate, where there are requirements to collectively bargain;
• close out agreements with our workforce in South America and Australia, with no lost time due to industrial action.

Discover more

Case study
Inclusion and diversity in Minerals Americas

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Footnote:

(1) Based on a ‘point in time’ snapshot of employees as at 30 June 2019, as used in internal management reporting for the purposes of monitoring progress against our goals. This does not include contractors. This methodology differs from the data reported in Performance data – People, which is calculated based on the average of the number of employees at the last day of each calendar month for a 10-month period from July through to April and in accordance with our reporting requirement under the UK Companies Act 2006.

Occupational illness

The incidence of employee occupational illness in FY2019 was 4.38 per million hours worked, an increase of 5 per cent compared with FY2018.

The reported incidence of contractor occupational illness was 1.62 per million hours worked, a decrease of 16 per cent compared with FY2018. The overall decrease in contractor illnesses was predominantly driven by the 23 per cent increase in hours worked in FY2019.

We do not have full oversight of the incidence of contractor noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) cases in many parts of BHP due to regulatory regimes and limited access to data. We continue to work with our contractors and regulatory agencies to resolve these issues.

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Occupational exposures

For our most material exposures to DPM, silica and coal mine dust, we have committed to a five-year target to achieve a 50 per cent reduction in the number of workers potentially exposed⁽¹⁾ as compared to our baseline exposure profile (as at 30 June 2017⁽²⁾) by 30 June 2022.

In Petroleum, the divestment of our Onshore US assets during FY2019 changed the exposure profile for the region as workplace exposures to silica and DPM are no longer present. Our baseline exposure profile for the Group for the five-year target was therefore adjusted to remove the baseline exposures attributed to the Onshore US assets.

In FY2019, planned exposure reduction projects were implemented across the Group, involving a collaborative effort from operational and maintenance teams, supported by the Health, Safety and Environment, Supply and Technology teams.

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Mental health

BHP has prioritised the mental health of our people since 2015. We have subsequently made good progress with the implementation of our Group-wide Mental Health Framework.

We have focused on reducing the stigma associated with mental illness and raising awareness of mental health conditions, as well as building capacity and confidence to recognise and support individuals experiencing mental health issues.

In FY2019, we continued to embed programs and resources that support a healthy, thriving workforce. This included the peer-led Resilience Program in which 3,392 people had participated, as at the end of FY2019.

Read more

Case study
New program tackles fatigue at Escondida

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Footnotes:
(1) For exposures exceeding our baseline occupational exposure limits discounting the use of personal protective equipment, where required.
(2) The baseline exposure profile is derived through a combination of quantitative exposure measurements and qualitative assessments undertaken by specialist occupational hygienists consistent with best practice as defined by the American Industrial Hygiene Association.

Our safety performance

Total recordable injury frequency (TRIF) performance increased by seven per cent to 4.7 per million hours worked, compared to 4.4 per million hours worked in FY2018. This was due to an increase in injuries in both Minerals Australia and Minerals Americas.

High potential injuries declined by seven per cent from FY2018 due to reductions at WAIO, Olympic Dam and Potash; the frequency rate declined by 18 per cent. High potential injury trends remain a primary focus to assess progress against our most important safety objective: to eliminate fatalities.

Read more about out safety performance

Field Leadership Program

Leaders spending time in the field is vital to maintaining safe operations. Through our Field Leadership Program, leaders from all levels of BHP spend time in the field engaging with employees and contractors about safety.

They are also responsible for verifying fatality risk controls that are behavioural in nature and ensuring that elements of our Health, Safety and Environment management system are working as intended. Through this engagement we identify positive behaviours, at-risk behaviours and opportunities for system improvements.

Read more about our Field Leadership Program

Contractor safety

The last seven fatalities at our operations involved contractors or subcontractors. This brought into sharp focus the issue of contractor safety, given our 40,000 contractors comprise around two-thirds of our workforce, and precipitated significant changes to the way we engage and manage contractors.

Global contractor safety requirements now form an integral part of the Our Requirements for Safety standard and are based on lessons from previous fatalities at BHP.

Read more about contractor safety

High occupancy vehicles

We transport employees and contractors in high occupancy vehicles every day, which presents a high potential material risk exposure for the Group.

We also continue to actively work with the National Road Safety Program Partnership, which is part of the Australia Road Research Board. A working group with participants from organisations across a number of business sectors has been established to develop and implement strategies to better manage and monitor high occupancy vehicles.

Read more about safety at BHP

Case study
America’s WETLAND Foundation: Terrebone Biodiversity and Community Resilience Projects

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Case study
A collective approach to regional development in Queensland

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Case study
Supporting vulnerable populations in regional Colombia

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Case study
Protecting ghost bats in the Pilbara

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Responsibly managing land and supporting biodiversity

The nature of our operations means we have a significant responsibility for land and biodiversity management. BHP owns or manages more than 10 million hectares of land and sea; however, less than two per cent of it is disturbed for operations. Our activities have inherent risks for land, marine and aquatic biodiversity in the areas we operate. We are committed to reducing those risks and to contributing to a resilient environment beyond the immediate areas of our operations.

Our assets have plans and processes in place that reflect local biodiversity risks and regulatory requirements. At a Group level, we have a five-year target to improve marine and terrestrial biodiversity outcomes by developing a framework to evaluate and verify the benefits of our actions in collaboration with others. This is being designed to allow us to better monitor, avoid, reduce and offset biodiversity impacts of our activities in a coordinated way.

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Rehabilitation and closure

As a global leader in the development of natural resources, we are committed to implementing a planned approach to closure and rehabilitation through the life cycle of our operations. We do this by following our closure management process, taking into consideration our values, obligations, commitment to safety, cost risks/benefits and the expectations of external stakeholders, and developing a closure management plan that delivers enduring environmental and social benefits.

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Case study
Ecological implications of decommissioning subsea infrastructure in northwest Australia

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Making progress on water stewardship

Water stewardship is about safeguarding our shared water resources for future generations.

Our Water Stewardship Strategy was adopted in FY2017 to improve our management of water, increase transparency and help resolve shared water challenges. In FY2018, we produced our first standalone Water Report and in FY2019, we developed our Water Stewardship Position Statement that outlines BHP’s commitment and advocacy focus on water stewardship. Implementation of the Position Statement will commence in FY2020.

For information on our approach to water stewardship and water performance in FY2019, please see the Water section.

Reducing air emissions

Greenhouse gases (GHG) and dust are our most significant emissions to air across the BHP portfolio. Our actions to reduce GHG emissions are described in more detail in the Climate change section. We manage and monitor our air emissions, such as dust, to reduce the potential for air quality impacts on our workforce, surrounding communities and ecosystems.

Case study
Supporting conservation projects in Texas and Arkansas

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Case study
Light electric vehicles in underground pilot

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Case study
Keeping greenhouse gas emissions reductions rolling

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Case study
BHP embraces emissions reduction innovations in shipping industry

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Scope 3 emissions performance

The most significant contributions to Scope 3 emissions in our value chain come from the downstream processing and use of our products, in particular emissions emanating from the steelmaking process (the processing and use of our iron ore and metallurgical coal).

In FY2019 emissions associated with the processing of our non-fossil fuel commodities (iron ore to steel; copper concentrate and cathode to copper wire) were 305 million tonnes of CO₂-e. Emissions associated with the use of our fossil fuel commodities (metallurgical and energy coal, oil and gas) were 233 million tonnes of CO₂-e.

Footnotes

(1) Scope 3 refers to all other indirect GHG emissions (not included in Scope 2) from activities across our value chain, including upstream emissions related to the extraction and production of purchased materials and fuels; downstream emissions related to the processing and use of our products; upstream and downstream transportation and distribution; and emissions from our non-operated joint ventures. Scope 3 emissions have been calculated using methodologies consistent with the GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard.
(2) FY2018 data includes Continuing operations and Discontinued operations (Onshore US assets). FY2019 data includes Discontinued operations (Onshore US) to 31 October 2019 and Continuing operations.
(3) Includes product transport where freight costs are covered by BHP, for example under Cost and Freight (CFR) or similar terms, as well as purchased transport services for process inputs to our operations.
(4) Product transport where freight costs are not covered by BHP, for example under Free on Board (FOB) or similar terms.
(5) All iron ore production is assumed to be processed into steel and all copper production is assumed to be processed into copper wire for end use. Processing of nickel, zinc, gold, silver, ethane and uranium oxide is not currently included, as production volumes are much lower than iron ore and copper, and a large range of possible end uses apply. Processing/refining of petroleum products is also excluded as these emissions are considered immaterial compared to the end-use product combustion reported  in the ‘Use of sold products’ category.
(6) All crude oil and condensates are conservatively assumed to be refined and combusted as diesel.
(7) Covers the Scope 1 and 2 emissions (on an equity basis) from our assets that are owned as a joint venture but not operated by BHP.

Developing effective climate and energy policy

We believe an effective policy framework should include a complementary set of measures, including a price on carbon, support for low emissions technology and measures to build resilience. We are a signatory to the World Bank's Putting a Price on Carbon statement and a partner in the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition, a global initiative that brings together leaders from industry, government, academia and civil society with the goal of putting in place effective carbon pricing policies.

Our CEO Andrew Mackenzie has also been appointed to the World Bank’s High-Level Commission on Carbon Pricing and Competitiveness. We also advocate for a framework of policy settings that will accelerate the deployment of CCS. We are a member of the Global CCS Institute and the UK Government’s Council on Carbon Capture Usage and Storage.

We contribute to policy reviews throughout our global operating regions. For example, in FY2019 we made a submission to the Australian Government’s consultation on the operation of the Emissions Reduction Fund Safeguard Mechanism. We also engaged with the Australian Energy Security Board, directly and through our industry association memberships, on the design of the National Energy Guarantee. We look forward to continuing to work with governments to ensure climate and energy policy frameworks are market based and technology neutral, and appropriately balance the goals of energy reliability, energy affordability and emissions reduction.