Sustainability website / Reporting & Standards / Measuring our impact

ISO 14001 compliance and certification

Xstrata does not mandate third party ISO 14001 certification at its operations and does not use certification as an indicator of environmental performance. ISO 14001 does not state specific performance criteria and third party certification does not provide the level of assurance of environmental performance required by our Board and executive management team. To provide this assurance Xstrata has developed and implemented its own best practice SD Assurance Programme. This programme ensures sites maintain an environmental management system compliant with ISO 14001 and also measures the overall and standard by standard HSEC performance of an operation.

Xstrata’s commodity businesses determine autonomously whether third party ISO 14001certification provides commercial or other benefits, for example where stakeholder feedback has indicated that third party certification is important to a particular group, such as communities, regulators, customers or business partners.

Injury frequency rate

Xstrata reports total recordable injuries per million hours worked. This measure includes all injuries, medical treatment injuries and restricted work injuries and provides a more comprehensive indication of injuries sustained in the workplace than lost time injuries alone. While the total recordable injury frequency rate is recognised in many other industries, Xstrata was one of the first mining companies to use and report this measure. Other large diversified mining companies are starting to adopt the total recordable injury frequency rate (TRIFR) as a key measure, and Xstrata is actively participating in ICMM to encourage further take-up. We continue to report the lost time injury frequency rate to provide a basis for comparison with our peers.

Leading ‘near miss’ indicators

Since 2003, Xstrata’s businesses have implemented high potential risk incident (HPRI) reporting which captures serious ‘near miss’ incidents. All high-potential risk incidents are reported on a monthly basis to the Group Executive Committee. Reporting of high potential risk incidents is an important leading indicator of safety performance and major hazard management, and a useful learning tool to avoid critical incidents or fatalities. All incidents are investigated and findings are incorporated into safety management procedures and guidelines as an important tool in preventing future incidents.

Fatality and critical incidents

We remain committed to our belief that the goal of zero fatalities is achievable in our business. We recognise that low injury frequency rates alone are not an indicator of how major hazards are being managed and we have developed a very strong ‘near-miss’ reporting culture across our operations since 2002, to provide leading indicators of our performance in managing critical risks. Xstrata’s SD Management Standard 6: Catastrophic Hazards includes a specific standard focussed on catastrophic hazards, which recognises the particular challenge these incidents represent. This standard is intended to ensure the Group has the culture, processes and structures to identify and manage high potential safety hazards over the life of our operations.