Group information / Governance
Governance
HSEC
Our commitment to the principles of sustainable development is integral to our strategy and business philosophy. Our Mission, Business Principles and policies recognise that responsible management of our business is necessary for the long-term success of our strategy
Health, Safety, Environment & Community (HSEC) Committee
The HSEC Committee assists the Board to fulfil its sustainability roles and obligations globally. All Board members are provided with regular independent briefings on social, ethical and environmental issues and are able to consult external experts at Xstrata’s expense.
The HSEC Committee provides the Board with additional focus and guidance on key global HSEC issues, monitors and evaluates reports on the effectiveness of Xstrata’s sustainable development framework and benchmarks Xstrata’s plans, strategies and progress against other ICMM member countries. The Committee meets quarterly and at each formal meeting, the chief executive of Xstrata’s commodity businesses presents the business HSEC strategy, risks and performance to the Committee in rotation.
Group Executive Committee
The Group Executive Committee is directly accountable to the Xstrata plc Board and is responsible for implementing Group strategy within its delegated levels of authority and for overseeing the Group’s operational business units.
The Group Executive Committee monitors and evaluates reports from each of Xstrata’s commodity businesses on a monthly basis to determine the effectiveness of HSEC policy, governance, strategy, management standards and performance globally. The Group Executive Committee promotes the sharing of relevant HSEC information, incident investigation findings, good practices and relevant technologies to facilitate improvements in HSEC performance across its global business.
Our management philosophy is to allow each commodity business to operate with a high degree of autonomy within the structure of Xstrata’s global policies and HSEC management standards. Each commodity business Board includes a Group executive representative and reports to the Group Executive Committee. Each commodity business has an Executive HSEC Committee which provides the commodity business Board with additional focus and guidance on HSEC strategy and key HSEC issues.
HSEC management
The Group General Manager (GM), Sustainable Development reports directly to the Chief Executive and oversees the strategic management and global implementation, review and assurance of Xstrata’s sustainability policies and standards. Together with Group Corporate Affairs, the Group GM Sustainable Development is responsible for the Group’s interface with stakeholders on sustainability issues.
Sustainable Development Framework
Xstrata’s Mission, Business Principles, HSEC Policy, Corporate Social Involvement (CSI) Policy, Risk Management Policy and HSEC Management Standards set out the guiding principles and strategic framework for the management of sustainability issues across the business. Each commodity business maintains a HSEC management framework which guides the development of operational HSEC management systems. These systems and performance are independently audited against Group standards through the HSEC Assurance Programme at least once every three years, or more frequently dependent on performance and risk profile.
Within these Group requirements, it is the responsibility of each commodity business to implement specific HSEC, CSI and sustainability initiatives and controls. Xstrata’s policies, business principles and HSEC Management Standards are in the sustainability section of this website.
