Climate change and climate transition planning is a material governance and strategic issue for BHP. Therefore it is essential we continue to build capability and culture at appropriate levels across our organisation to enable us to deliver on our climate change strategy, including our GHG emissions targets and goals.

Board skills

The Board maintains a skills matrix that identifies the skills and experience the Board needs for the next period of BHP’s development, considering BHP’s circumstances and the changing external environment. Skills in the current matrix related to the Board’s capability to assess and monitor climate-related risk (threats and opportunities) and climate transition strategies include Sustainability and decarbonisation transition, Strategy, Operating risk, Commodity value chain and customers, Social value, community and stakeholder engagement, Technology, Capital allocation and cost efficiency, and Global experience. 

The Board collectively possesses all the skills and experience set out in the skills matrix. The Directors also participate in an ongoing training and development program and receive updates on climate-related issues and reporting requirements, including from external experts on evolving climate-related developments where required. The Board, supported by the Nomination and Governance Committee, regularly assesses the Board skills matrix and director skills and determines whether the composition and mix of those skills remains appropriate to achieve our purpose and strategy.

Management skills

Our CEO and other members of the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) attend meetings and review papers and materials intended to provide them with new and additional knowledge, skills and competencies required to oversee our climate change strategy.

Our CEO and other members of the ELT also make use of regular, structured forums that provide detailed information on climate-related topics, including:

• the Forum on Corporate Responsibility: A forum we host that meets half-yearly and convenes external leaders in sustainability-related fields to discuss views on current and emerging trends and risks, including climate change.
• the Quarterly Business Review: An internal forum that meets quarterly to review and consider updates on strategic direction and tactical progress on operational GHG emission reduction.
• the Foresight Forum: An internal forum that hosts discussions at least twice a year about new events and challenges affecting our forecasting of commodity demand, the global economy, financial markets and the overarching impact of climate change and the net zero transition globally.

Organisational training

We conduct periodic capability reviews across our business for roles with climate-related accountabilities to help us design and deliver training to support capability improvement. To support organisational capability, we:

1. Identify all roles with climate-related accountabilities: In our last organisational review, we identified approximately 2,300 roles.
2. Define the capabilities required in these roles: We have linked capabilities to role profiles.
3. Design and deliver training to enable capability lift: We develop training with subject-matter experts internally and externally. Our training is delivered via an internal organisational learning management system with completion required and monitored for certain roles.

From our last organisational review, we identified, developed and delivered training including, ‘Foundational knowledge about climate change’, ‘Adaptation and resilience’, ‘Scope 3 emissions’ and ‘Carbon accounting’.

Organisational culture

Our enhancement of climate-related capabilities in turn enables a culture shift – as the practice of factoring climate-related risks, impacts and dependencies into decision-making increasingly becomes business-as-usual for those equipped with an understanding of these concepts.

We regularly run internal communication campaigns to inform and educate our workforce about our climate change strategy and progress. This includes company-wide events, such as ‘Your decarbonisation questions answered’, ELT-led town halls and use of internal and external social media.

We hold a quarterly internal Sustainability and Climate Community of Practice to deliver updates on external developments and our latest progress, and to enable sharing of best practice across the organisation.

Our Health, Safety, Environment and Community (HSEC) Awards recognise and celebrate the innovation and contribution of our workforce to making our workplaces and the communities where we operate more sustainable, including through climate-related initiatives. They recognise achievement on an individual and team level, and are designed to identify, commend and replicate best practice, inspire new ideas and further embed consideration of areas, such as climate change, into what we do.