Social Responsibility
We understand that we have an obligation to create shared value for all our stakeholders.
Robust relationships built on a foundation of trust are critical throughout the entire mining cycle, from exploration and development through to operations and closure. We view them as an essential part of securing and maintaining our social licence to operate.
The local communities we operate in are detailed under each of our specific projects, located under ‘Our Assets’.
Evolution has a Community Relations Policy and Community Principles that guide our behaviour when interacting with the community. We welcome feedback at any time about how we are performing against these standards and value any suggestions about how we can improve.
Each of our projects is set amongst vibrant rural communities with their own special qualities and character. Our partnering opportunities and community investments are therefore unique and tailored to the needs of the local community.
Evolution contributes to communities in several ways: local sponsorships, donations and partnerships; training, apprenticeship and scholarship programs; local employment and local procurement; emergency services where we are often first respondents to a local accident or incident; and royalties.
FY20 achievements
- A$1.56B contribution to the Australian and Canadian economies
- A$955M in goods and services payments to suppliers
- A$130.0M to local and regional businesses and organisations including A$79.2M in direct spend with local organisations
- 100% of Community Plans Actions completed
- Increase in ‘social licence to operate’ scores from Stakeholder Perception Survey
- Committed A$1.5M to support farming families and communities, in collaboration with Rural Aid
- Seven new Shared Value Projects
Trusting relationships are built by regularly listening to, and engaging with, our communities and other key stakeholders in an honest and transparent manner.
We recognise the important role the operations serve as catalysts for social and economic development in our host communities and beyond. Therefore, all our operations support a wide range of community development initiatives based on the local socioeconomic environment and host community needs.
Each of our communities are unique and have different priorities and goals. It is therefore an imperative that we identify common goals that foster a collaborative approach to achieving community resilience and building effective relationships with all stakeholders.
Community investment
We are committed to investing in our communities and partnering to achieve meaningful outcomes and to generate shared value. We share the economic benefit by, wherever possible, prioritising local procurement and local employment and training opportunities, particularly for our local indigenous communities.
We make a significant economic contribution to the Australian economy as well as directly within our local communities. In addition to our sponsorships and donations, we collaborate to implement projects that will continue to benefit the community long beyond the life of the mine. These Shared Value Projects will be particularly important for planning for closure and supporting the viability of communities beyond the life of mine which our stakeholders indicated were a very high priority at every operation in our Stakeholder Perception Study.
| Shared Value Project Drivers | ||
|---|---|---|
| Alignment with Evolution strategy and planning | Health and safety outcomes | Scalability |
| Use of internal skills/assets | Talent attraction, development and retention | Long-term viability |
| Reputation and social licence | Compliance or stakeholder commitments | Educational outcomes |
| Stakeholder trust and support | Community-led impact | Local economic outcomes |
| Innovation | Alignment with government or strategic drivers | Environmental outcomes |
| Employee engagement | Local capacity and partnerships | Community resilience |
| Costs, efficiencies or ROI | Mind dependency | Infrastructure capability |
Human rights and modern slavery
Our operations and activities may impact a broad range of human rights. As part of our commitment to be a responsible business, we recognise the important role and responsibility we have in respecting the human rights of our stakeholders.
In FY20, human rights and modern slavery awareness and compliance into the various supply chains continued to be embedded across the Evolution group. We fully endorse the Modern Slavery Act (MSA) and expect our suppliers to not only align with our core values of safety, excellence, accountability, and respect, but ensure our supply chains are not at risk of modern slavery or other breaches of human rights.
A Modern Slavery Statement will be developed by management for approval by the Board in FY21.
Key FY20 initiatives achieved included:
- Rollout of an MSA awareness and education pack to each Evolution site
- Review and update of procurement market engagement materials to accommodate questions for suppliers to address MSA compliance and enable tender evaluation panels to assess
- Development of an MSA questionnaire for issuance to new vendors as part of on-boarding compliance, and distribution to existing vendors in the Evolution supplier base to assess ongoing compliance
- Undertaking further questioning and review of suppliers considered to be at higher risk of modern slavery in their supply chains
Sponsorships and Donations
Our Sponsorship and Donation program is one of the ways we support organisations and initiatives that benefit our local communities.
Evolution particularly encourages members of the community to submit applications that provide outcomes in the areas of economic development, youth, health, education and environment. In addition to applications for financial assistance, we encourage organisations to submit applications for in kind support, material donations or volunteer assistance.
In order to submit a sponsorship or donation application, please read the guideline document and return a completed application form to the Community Relations team at your nearest site.
For applicants near our Red Lake site, sponsorship and donation requests come under the Red Lake program:
For applicants near our Cowal site, sponsorship and donation requests come under the Cowal Partnering Program:
For all other sites, please use the following sponsorship and donation documents:
SOCIAL LICENCE TO OPERATE
RATING FROM STAKEHOLDERS
7 NEW
SHARED VALUE PROJECTS
Respecting the culture of Indigenous peoples
We respect the role of the traditional custodians of the land on which we operate, and value the partnerships we have built with them.
Securing the support of communities in which we operate is core to our operations and ongoing success as a business. It is important that we form trusting and mutually beneficial relationships with our Traditional Custodians and First Nation Groups, supporting their goals and protecting their cultural heritage.
How we engage with the Traditional Custodians and First Nation Groups is outlined in Evolution’s Social Responsibility Performance Standards. Each of our
operations has a dedicated community team that liaises with our Traditional Custodians and First Nation Groups to oversee the relationship agreements we have in place and to ensure that we are focused on enhancing the outcomes for Indigenous people and protecting their cultural heritage.
Significant industry-events which occurred in Australia in FY20 which adversely affected cultural heritage prompted us to:
- Review all cultural heritage audit reports including Board oversight
- Review our sites’ areas of cultural sensitivity and revalidate the controls in place
- Engage with communities to acknowledge the significant impact and to re-affirm our commitment to our ongoing relationships and continued protection of cultural heritage
MATERIAL CULTURAL HERITAGE
INCIDENTS: NIL
MATERIAL COMMUNITY IMPACT INCIDENTS: NIL
COST OF CULTURAL
HERITAGE-RELATED
INFRINGEMENTS: NIL
RATING FROM STAKEHOLDERS (FY20)
