Social investment

science experiment

Social investment is one of many ways that we seek to create social value. We believe we are successful when we work in partnership with communities to achieve long-term social, environmental and economic outcomes.

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Our approach and position

Social investment is our voluntary contribution towards initiatives that have the primary purpose of contributing to beneficial outcomes for communities and the environment.

Our social investment strategy aligns with our social value framework and 2030 goals, and strengthens our approach towards partnership and co-creation. Social investment plays an important role in addressing challenges such as community and environmental resilience and requires close collaboration with our partners and stakeholders.

The strategy provides a consistent framework for BHP’s voluntary social investment across the organisation and is guided by four principles: investments are integrated and coherent; enduring; risk-based and social value oriented; and solution-focused and outcome-driven.

Social investment delivery model

Insights gathered through collaboration with our partners and stakeholders are combined with research, which helps us plan and prioritise our social investment. The four guiding principles outlined above assist our teams to ensure investment opportunities are co-designed and implemented in an equitable manner that respects relevant local customs and contributes to meaningful, lasting change.

Governance, engagement and disclosure
Governance

For information on the role of the BHP Board in overseeing our approach to and delivery on sustainability refer to the Sustainability approach webpage.

Engagement

As a global company, we operate across diverse jurisdictions and engage with a wide range of stakeholders, including communities, non-government organisations, government bodies and research institutions. Through regular engagement and ongoing research into environmental, workforce, community and supply chain matters, we seek to understand, manage and respond to stakeholder expectations, priorities and risks.

We engage at local, regional, national and global levels to understand both place-based priorities and broader issues affecting our industry, including challenges that extend beyond national boundaries, such as climate change, human rights and public health. We value two-way dialogue as essential to understanding concerns and perspectives, and stakeholder input is a core element of our approach. For more information on our engagement refer to the Local communities webpage.

Disclosure

We use metrics designed to support evaluation of the outcomes that we seek to achieve through social investment.

Our total social investment is internally monitored and verified each quarter, then externally assured annually and publicly disclosed in our Economic Contribution Report, and as relevant in our Modern Slavery Statement and Australian Indigenous Social Investment Report

Matched Giving Program

We are proud to support the organisations that are important to our employees. Through our Matched Giving Program, BHP matches personal donations made by our employees to eligible not-for-profit organisations at a ratio of 2:1, meaning that for every dollar donated by our employees BHP donates two dollars.

Our Matched Giving Program currently features 100 eligible organisations around the world.