Our strategy
Earning trust by operating responsibly
In the months following the merger we spent a good deal of time assessing what our corporate responsibility strategy should be. We looked at the business case for corporate responsibility for our industry, the impacts of mining and steel-making, and our place in the value chain. We benchmarked ourselves against other similar companies, and ran a number of workshops with key managers and stakeholders inside the company to develop key performance indicators.
The result is a strategy that is realistic, robust, and has been approved by the Group Management Board.
What we believe
Steel helps build the infrastructure of the modern world. Our position in the industry brings unique opportunities and unique responsibilities. Our future success partly depends on the wider world giving us the freedom and flexibility to succeed. We will earn their trust to do so by behaving responsibly.How we are putting this into practice
There are 4 focus areas to our corporate responsibility strategy. We will transform tomorrow by:- Investing in our people
- Making steel more sustainable
- Enriching our communities
- Transparent governance
We have a number of key performance indicators to measure our performance against each of the four areas of commitment outlined below.
Investing in our people
This means making each and every person working on our behalf feel valued.Our people are leaders, helping us transform tomorrow. We need their ideas, and rely on their hard work and commitment. We treat them with dignity and respect, investing in their development, and providing them with a safe and healthy working environment.
We hold ourselves accountable for:
- Ensuring healthy and safe working conditions at all our operations.
- Actively promoting a strong culture of leadership and accountability, and rewarding our employees fairly based on their performance.
- Creating a collaborative, productive, and innovative workplace.
- Effective dialogue with our employees and their representatives.
- Being transparent and honest in our commitments to our people, to ensure we maintain a trusted working environment.
Making steel more sustainable
This means using our expertise in steel to develop cleaner processes and greener products.We are working on breakthrough technologies to redefine the steel making process and to contribute to solutions to the global challenge of climate change. Our efforts are focused on achieving continuous improvement in our environmental performance, by doing what we do more efficiently, developing pioneering new processes and more sustainable practices, and also working in partnership with others to help them achieve their environmental goals.
We hold ourselves accountable for sharing environmental and technical knowledge throughout the business, to improve our overall performance.
Enriching our communities
Our presence plays an important role in all the communities in which we operate.We want to contribute to the development of strong and sustainable local communities, wherever we are in the world. We play our part by being sensitive to local needs and priorities, by engaging with our communities in an open and straightforward way, and by working in active partnership with local organisations.
We hold ourselves accountable for:
- Making community engagement one of our core skills.
- Agreeing and delivering progress through working in partnerships, effective engagement, and open communication.
- Being realistic about what we can achieve, and focusing on practical and tangible activities that deliver long-lasting change and more sustainable communities.
Transparent governance
We will take steps to understand our true impacts, predict future consequences, and manage risks consistently across our operations. We will engage meaningfully with key stakeholders and respond in a transparent manner.We hold ourselves accountable for:
- Improving the quality of our disclosure to investors, and our corporate responsibility reporting.
- Treating all our shareholders equally, and communicating with them proactively.
- Implementing our governance policies and frameworks throughout the business.
- Integrating corporate responsibility principles into all of our business and management practices