South32

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses how often and through which channels it engages with various stakeholder groups.

Impact and dependencies assessment
The company carries out a risk and opportunity screening at least every five years. This includes, among other things, an assessment of the company’s land footprint and interactions with threatened animal and plant species. The company also applies the mitigation hierarchy across all its operations and has committed to work towards a no net loss outcome for new projects and major expansions.

Water
The company has a commitment to respect the right to water. It discloses that each operation and major project is required to carry out a risk and opportunity screening process at least once every five years. It also requires all its operations to maintain water resource forecasts in order to have a clear understanding of its water needs and make informed decisions about how to manage supply and demand.

No leading practices were identified for the company in the social inclusion and community impact area

Sustainability strategy and accountability
The company discloses its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability impacts as well as the outcome of this process, in relation to its sustainability strategy. While the company has a climate target, no further evidence was found that the company has group-wide targets on key sustainability topics for the most material parts of its value chain. The company reports consistently against all its targets. While the company links executive remuneration to its climate change target in its long-term incentive plan and links its short-term incentive plan with its business scorecard, it is unclear how the company links remuneration to quantifiable targets relating to social issues beyond safety. The company does not disclose whether its highest governance body has expertise regarding nature-related topics.

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses an overview of the issues raised during its stakeholder engagement activities.

Lobbying
The company discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member wherever it operates. While the company also discloses some elements such as climate policy alignment, no evidence was found that it discloses a clear and detailed framework for assessing alignment of its trade associations with nature-positive policies. While the company discloses some misalignment between the lobbying activities of its trade associations and nature-positive policies, it does not provide details of the misalignment.

Impact and dependencies assessment
The company does not disclose any assessment of its impacts on nature, including biodiversity, in its supply chain. The company does not disclose any assessment of its dependencies on nature within its own operations. Nor does it disclose any assessment of dependencies on nature of its upstream business relationships.

Key areas and species
The company discloses the locations that are in or adjacent to areas important for biodiversity within its own operations. However, it does not disclose the locations of its suppliers that are in or adjacent to areas important for biodiversity. The company does not disclose species populations existing in or adjacent to its own locations or those of its suppliers. Finally, the company does not disclose the status according to national and international conservation lists of species identified in its own locations.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
The company does not have a commitment to ensure zero conversion. It does not disclose any activities to achieve conversion-free supply chains or have time-bound targets to achieve conversion-free supply chains. The company does not disclose a commitment to minimise ecosystem conversion or activities to minimise ecosystem conversion. However, it is committed to restoring ecosystems and discloses details and outcomes of ecosystem restoration projects in areas affected by its own operations or by its suppliers.

Resource exploitation and circularity
The company does not disclose its inputs, including its material footprint, nor does it report quantitatively on its group-wide circularity performance. While the company discloses activities to improve soil health or agrobiodiversity in its production or sourcing practices, it does not have an associated target.

Water
The company demonstrates it is reducing water withdrawal in its own operations. While it has set a target for operations in baseline water stress regions, no evidence could be found that the company has a group-wide, time-bound target to reduce water withdrawal across all its own operations and reports progress against the target. The company reports how much water is withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas but does not engage with suppliers to reduce water withdrawal. The company does not report a decrease in water pollution, nor does it disclose its processes for managing and monitoring discharge water quality. It does not regularly report on water pollution and does not disclose targets to reduce water pollution.

Solid and air pollution
The company is reducing the production of hazardous waste but is not reducing plastic use and waste in its own operations. It does not report on the amount of plastic waste generated and proportions directed from or to disposal. While the company reports regularly on air quality parameters of emissions of harmful air pollutants, it does not report time-bound targets to reduce air pollutants across the most material parts of its value chain.

GHG emissions
The company is reducing its scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions. It has a time-bound target to reduce these emissions and reports progress against the target. However, the target is not aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory. The company is also reducing its scope 3 emissions. Although it has a time-bound reduction target for its scope 3 emissions, it does not report progress against the target. In addition, the company’s scope 3 emissions target is not aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Invasive species
No evidence was found that the company identifies the activities that could lead to the introduction of invasive species in its own operations. Nor was evidence found that the company identifies the activities that could lead to the introduction of invasive species in its value chain.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
The company is not committed to respecting local communities’ right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, nor does it track its actual or potential negative impacts on the health of local communities. The company is not committed to zero tolerance for acts of violence, threats, intimidation or judicial harassment committed against land and environmental rights defenders.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
The company does not show if it is committed to respecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights or land rights of local communities.

The company has an opportunity to describe a comprehensive process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts across all its activities, especially its financing activities. The company states that it has a due diligence process to identify, prevent, mitigate and remedy potential or actual adverse human rights impacts in its operations and value chains. The company also lists the most material human rights risks and impacts it faces. Additionally, it conducts supplier due diligence assessments to identify modern slavery risk. However, it does not disclose its process for assessing its human rights risks. While the company discloses that it conducts routine human rights risk assessments and that it remediates in locations with the highest risk, no evidence was found that it has a global system to act on all its salient human rights issues. The company provides a case study describing how it has acted on a salient human rights risk issue. While the company discloses the categories of stakeholders it engages with generally on sustainability issues, it is not clear if these stakeholders are those whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities. There is no evidence that the company provides examples of its engagement with stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities.

The company has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect the health and safety of its own workers and expecting its suppliers to do the same. The company has an opportunity to disclose a time-bound target for paying all workers a living wage or that it has achieved paying all workers a living wage. The company also has an opportunity to describe how it determines a living wage for the regions where it operates. The company discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements. While the company states that it encourages its suppliers to respect employees’ right to freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining, it has an opportunity to describe how it works to support the practices of its suppliers in this regard.

There is no evidence that the company has a publicly available global tax strategy. Nor is there evidence that the company describes the process for identifying its bribery and corruption risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations. However, it does include anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with direct business relationships. In a public policy statement, the company discloses its approach to lobbying and political engagement, and it specifies that it does not make political contributions.