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

The Board’s Sustainability Committee advises and assists the Board in its oversight of the Group’s management and performance in relation to health, safety, environmental, climate and community matters.

The Sustainability Committee also advises the People and Remuneration Committee in setting safety and sustainability-related scorecard targets and evaluating performance against those targets.

The Board’s Risk and Audit Committee is responsible for assisting the Board in overseeing and reviewing emerging and priority group risks, risk management and internal controls. The Risk and Audit Committee also reviews and recommends to the Board public financial disclosures related to sustainability matters.

The Nomination and Governance Committee is responsible for reviewing and making recommendations to the Board on the Group’s significant social, community and sustainability policies. The Nomination and Governance Committee also reviews and makes recommendations to the Board on the Group’s public sustainability targets and goals.

The People and Remuneration Committee is responsible for considering and assessing the performance measures for the Executive Leadership Team and performance outcomes against those measures. In doing so, the People and Remuneration Committee considers recommendations from the Sustainability Committee in relation to health, safety, environment, climate and community measures.

More information on the Board and each Committee is set out in the 2023 Corporate Governance Statement, Board Governance Document and Committee Charters on the Corporate Governance webpage.

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. The BHP Forum on Corporate Responsibility (FCR) is a key part of our governance approach and stakeholder engagement program. The FCR comprises independent civil society leaders in various fields of sustainability, who make an important contribution to our approach over a range of social and environmental issues and to the development of our policies, strategies and standards. 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.

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 2023, Operating and Financial Review 6.17 - Independent limited assurance report. 

Refer to the ESG Standards and Databook 2023 for details on our FY2023 sustainability performance data.  

Refer to the Social value webpage for our 2023 social value scorecard.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) 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 create negative impacts. Therefore, sustainability must be integral to how we do business. The interconnectedness of the SDGs means that 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 contribute towards the achievement of the SDGs through: 


Our work on inclusion and diversity. Refer to our People webpage for information on our approach and how we are tracking against our aspirational goal for a gender-balanced employee workforce by the end of FY2025 (SDGs 5 and 8). 

Our focus on water stewardship. Refer to our Water webpage for information on our approach to water management (SDG 6).

Our work on marine and terrestrial biodiversity. Refer to our Biodiversity and land webpage for information on our approach to biodiversity (SDGs 14 and 15). 

The taxes and royalties we pay to governments where we operate, the direct and indirect employment opportunities we create and our supply chain. Refer to our Economic Contribution Report for more information (SDG 8). 

Our voluntary social investment. Refer to our Social investment webpage for information on our social investment strategy and framework (SDGs 3, 4 and 11). 

Our commitment to the aims of the Paris Agreement and action to reduce our operational emissions help to address emissions in our value chain, build resilience and enhance the global response to climate change. Our operational GHG emission reduction strategy continues to prioritise structural abatement in areas that are technically and commercially feasible, while working in collaboration with our suppliers, partners and peers on accelerating the development of other potential decarbonisation technologies. Our medium-term target is to reduce operational GHG emissions by at least 30 per cent from FY2020 levels by FY2030, and our long-term goal is to achieve net zero operational GHG emissions by 2050. Refer to our Climate change webpage for our approach to climate change. (SDG 13). 

This approach allows us to work in partnerships with others to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes (SDG17).    

Risk management approach 

Under our Group-wide Risk Framework, our aim is to identify risks (both threats and opportunities) associated with our business, including risks and potential impacts that relate to sustainability issues. This enables us to prioritise and manage the risks that matter most.  

We classify all risks to which BHP is exposed using our Group Risk Architecture. This is a tool to identify, analyse, monitor and report risk, which provides a platform to understand and manage risks. Similar risks are considered together in categories, such as ‘People and culture’, ‘Health and safety’ and ‘Environment, climate change and community’. Each category is then further comprised of groups of risks, which include ‘Occupational safety’, ‘Human rights’, ‘Climate change’ and other sustainability risks. This gives the Board and management visibility over the aggregate exposure to risks, including sustainability risks, on a Group-wide basis and supports performance monitoring and reporting against BHP’s risk appetite.  

When we assess the materiality of a current risk, our Risk Framework requires us to consider all potential impacts, including to health and safety, the environment, communities, human rights and social value. This is designed to support the consideration of all potential impacts in risk assessments and means potential sustainability impacts are required to be considered in the context of all identified risks.  

Risk management is embedded into work processes and critical business systems to help us develop a risk-informed approach to sustainability. We set workplace health, safety, environment and community standards for our operated assets and work to enforce their application. Contractors working at our operated assets must comply with our standards and requirements, and we seek to ensure our suppliers, agents and service providers maintain business practices and workplace standards comparable to our own.  

Our Internal Audit team is responsible for providing independent and objective assurance over the control environment (governance, risk management and internal controls) to the Board and Executive Leadership Team. Third-party assurance providers visit selected operated assets and evaluate our sustainability approach to ensure we accurately represent our commitments and actions. For more information on our approach to risk management refer to the BHP Annual Report 2023, Operating and Financial Review 8 – How we manage risk.