We recognise our responsibility to make a positive contribution to sustainable development and environmental resilience. Our Social Investment Strategy is informed by our Social Investment Framework, which aims to make a meaningful contribution to addressing the sustainable development challenges of most relevance to our business and stakeholders. The framework is informed by the UN SDGs and as part of our review of the Social Investment Strategy in FY2020, we updated our Social Investment Framework to better align with the focus of our business and the communities where we have a presence.
The Social Investment Framework focuses on three themes:
- Future of Communities- to contribute to the understanding, development and sustainable use of resources to support a just transition for communities and address the challenges of the future
- Future of Work- to enhance human capability and social inclusion through increasing access to relevant education and vocational training, skills development, and enhanced livelihood opportunities linked to the future of work
- Future of Environment- to contribute to enduring environmental and social benefits through biodiversity conservation and ecosystem restoration, water stewardship and climate change mitigation and adaptation
The Social Investment Framework is delivered using a local, regional, national and global approach, outlined in the figure below.
Monitoring and evaluation is a fundamental element of the global social investment approach. A suite of metrics is used to enable us to aggregate data aligned to the key focus areas of the Social Investment Framework and consistently assess and quantify the outcomes and impact of our social investment across all levels of investment.
Our voluntary social investment in FY2020 totalled US$149.63 million, consisting of US$113.83 million in direct community development and environment projects and donations, US$12.03 million equity share to non-operated joint venture social investment programs, a US$12 million donation to the BHP Foundation(1) and US$1.85 million under the Matched Giving Program. Administrative costs to facilitate direct social investment activities totalled US$8.58 million and US$1.33 million supported the operations of the BHP Foundation.
(1) The BHP Foundation is a charitable organisation established and funded by BHP, which works in partnership with internationally recognised institutions, think tanks and non-government organisations to address some of the most critical sustainable development challenges facing society that are directly relevant to the resources sector.