Our sustainability approach banner image

Sustainability approach

Sustainability is key to our purpose of bringing people and resources together to build a better world. 

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Our approach and position
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Governance and oversight, engagement and performance
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Disclosure
 

Our ambition

We are committed to finding new ways of operating more sustainably while supplying products that are essential for the global transition towards a more sustainable future. We can only achieve our purpose through collective effort, and we value the opportunity of partnering in our value chain to strive to make our business more sustainable and to contribute to global sustainable development goals.

Our approach and position

We recognise our business interacts with a range of material sustainability topic areas. Furthermore, we recognise a key to operating more sustainably is how we govern our approach to managing our actual and potential impacts.

As illustrated below, our sustainability approach is defined by our purpose, building strong foundations, and creating social value. For more information, our social value framework, approach to governance, and annual performance against our social value scorecard are detailed on our Social value webpage and in the BHP Annual Report 2024, Operating and Financial Review 6.5 - 2030 goals. For more information on our approach to sustainability-related risk management, refer to our Sustainability-related risk management webpage and the BHP Annual Report 2024, Operating and Financial Review 8 How we manage risk.

 

 

Governance and oversight, engagement, disclosure and performance

  • Governance and oversight

    The BHP Board has oversight of our approach to and delivery on sustainability and is supported by each of its Committees:

     

    More information on the Board and each Committee is set out in the 2024 Corporate Governance Statement, Board Governance Document and Committee Charters on the Corporate Governance webpage.

  • Engagement

    As a global company, we interact with a range of partners and stakeholders. Our methods, frequency of engagement and approach to listening to partners and stakeholders are diverse. We use a range of formal and informal communication and engagement channels to understand partner and stakeholder views. The following table provides an overview of our partner and stakeholder groups, their range of interests and how we engage with them. 

     

    BHP also seeks advice from external experts and forums on issues relating to sustainability as inputs into our policy development and decision-making processes, such as from our Forum on Corporate Responsibility (FCR). Together with BHP’s CEO and other members of the Executive Leadership Team, the FCR comprises independent civil society leaders in various fields of sustainability, who make an important contribution to our approach over a range of sustainability-related topics and to the development of our related policies, strategies and standards. The majority of the membership is civil society members. They provide insight into current and emerging issues, challenge our thinking and allow us to understand and consider the broader impacts of our actions. More information on the FCR is available on our FCR webpage.

  • Contributing to sustainable development

    The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to create a better, fairer and more sustainable world by 2030. The 17 SDGs address the global challenges society faces, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate change, conservation and economic growth. We can contribute to these broader goals through working in partnership with many different stakeholders, from global to local. 

     

    We recognise our business activities can contribute positively to the SDGs, but our operations can also create negative impacts. Therefore, sustainability must be integral to how we do business. The interconnectedness of the SDGs means a positive contribution to one can either have a multiplier effect or lead to potential negative impacts for another, so we work to understand the linkages, manage and mitigate any adverse impacts, and determine how we can make a positive contribution to those most relevant to our business and social value priorities. We considered our contribution to the SDGs when developing our social value framework, and have mapped our FY2024 sustainability-related material topics and impacts to their relevant SDGs in our BHP Annual Report 2024, Operating and Financial Review 6.4 Material topics for sustainability reporting.

  • Performance

    We use various metrics to measure our sustainability progress and performance. Our sustainability performance metrics are independently audited and a copy of the EY independent assurance report is available in the BHP Annual Report 2024, Operating and Financial Review 6.13 – Independent limited assurance report.
    Refer to the ESG Standards and Databook 2024 for details on our FY2024 sustainability performance data. 

    Refer to the Social value webpage for our FY2024 performance on our social value scorecard.

    ESG ratings agencies and benchmarks

    We actively report in alignment with, and/or respond to, a range of prominent ESG ratings and benchmarks. More information on our performance is outlined in the table below. 

Disclosure

We commit to a number of sustainability frameworks, standards and initiatives and we disclose data as required by law and according to the requirements of those frameworks, standards and initiatives. Our sustainability performance data is included in relevant sections of the BHP Annual Report 2024, Operating and Financial Review, and in our ESG Standards and Databook 2024. Our Annual Reporting suite also includes our Modern Slavery Statement 2024, prepared under the Australian Modern Slavery Act (2018) and UK Modern Slavery Act (2015), and our Economic Contribution Report 2024. We have obtained external limited assurance over the sustainability disclosures included in the BHP Annual Report 2024, Operating and Financial Review and our ESG Standards and Databook 2024.

Our sustainability disclosures are informed by and/or consistent with the principles, position statements and requirements of the following disclosure frameworks, standards and initiatives. 

Our approach to responsible production and sourcing standards, including details on some of our relevant memberships, is detailed on our Value chain sustainability webpage.

 
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Materiality assessment

Each year we identify the sustainability topics most material to our business, partners and stakeholders, by assessing the economic, social, environmental and cultural impact of our activities and business relationships.

ForumUpdated 2022
Forum on corporate responsibility

To help us engage with our stakeholders and partners and ensure we have access to leading specialist expertise, we regularly seek advice from external experts and forums on sustainability issues.

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Social value

Commodities we produce are essential to everyday life. The benefits they help to create, and how we do this, underpin our purpose and social value.

Sustainability case studies, organisational boundary, definitions and disclaimers, and downloads

Prior year versions of some of the listed documents are available on the Past reports page.