Sustainability Overview

Our objective is to achieve long term shareholder value in a corporately responsible manner and to play our part in developing strong and sustainable communities – not because we have to but because it’s the right thing to do.

For us, being a sustainable business is about building a company that allows us to deliver long-term value to our investors while recognising our broader responsibilities to our other stakeholders. We believe that our direct and indirect economic contribution should generate shared value for all stakeholders, measured not only by the superior returns we deliver to our shareholders, but also by the positive legacies we leave in our communities.

Our people are integral to our success and the delivery of our long-term strategy. In FY18 we contributed A$1.26 billion to the Australian economy (approximately A$6.0 billion since formation of Evolution) and spent around A$80 million directly with local community organisations. We attained a ‘social licence to operate’ score that placed us in the ‘high approval’ category which is a very strong result compared to other mining companies¹.

Our partnership approach reflects our values of Safety, Excellence, Accountability and Respect and is guided by our Community Principles. In addition to our sponsorships and donations, we partner with our community stakeholders on Shared Value Projects – legacy projects that will provide benefits to the community that last beyond the life of the mine. In FY18 we established five new Shared Value Projects, including
a business opportunity for one of our Queensland traditional owner partners and a regional tourism initiative in central west NSW.

Operating within an extractive industry, we know it is essential to provide a healthy and safe workplace for our people and that we continue to deliver an outstanding level of environmental performance.

We seek opportunities to effectively manage water and energy, minimise waste, and to reduce our environmental footprint. We currently have four environmental enhancement projects underway. We foster a culture where our people do the right thing because they want to, not because they have to, and this saw us reduce the number of injuries in FY18 by 31%.

We work to attract, engage, develop and retain talented people not only with the right skills but with the right mindset. We want our people’s time at Evolution to be the highlight of their career. We invest in bespoke leadership programs as it is our leaders who are most influential in shaping the culture of our teams.

We believe that corporate governance is essential to sustained value creation and we are committed to maintaining a high standard in all aspects of corporate governance.

The voluntary reporting landscape is evolving rapidly, and we are committed to actively participating in enhanced disclosure of sustainability issues and opportunities. In FY18, we engaged an independent sustainability consultant to facilitate a workshop with various leaders across our business to identify and prioritise our sustainability topics. The material topics chosen were also informed by our engagement with stakeholders, including our 2018 Stakeholder Perception Survey (Deloitte).

Our 2018 Annual Report contains our inaugural Sustainability report which supports our objectives of achieving long-term shareholder value in a corporately responsible manner and highlights the role we play in developing strong and sustainable communities. To view the report, click here.

1. Stakeholder Perception Survey – Deloitte 2018