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The new Social & Environmental Risk Management conference

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Opportunities

In earlier times, companies could get away with not addressing pressing social and environmental issues. As the world has now became a global fish bowl, business-as-usual approaches will no longer suffice. Not least of the potential astronomical financial costs but on opportunities missed:

• "A recent study by the World Resources Institute found that by working to obtain community consent at a project in the Philippines, Shell may have saved as much as $72 million in project delays, which amounted to a 1,200 percent return on its community consent efforts." (Oxfam America / PolicyInnovations.org 2008)
• In the 90s, Hamersley Iron Pty Limited, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, planned to develop an iron ore mine and railway at Yandicoogina in the Pilbara region of Australia. Hamersley consulted the aboriginal groups who lived in the region, taken their concerns into account and in the end, gained the consent of the community. Hamersley, in turn, reduced permitting time, completed construction under budget by $100 million, and commenced production six months early.

Successful companies

The most successful companies are investing in improvements to their environmental and social management systems. Thriving in this new competitive environment, however, is not simply about corporate charity or token consultations with communities. It entails making environmental and social management central to companies' business model.

For the mining, oil & gas, steel and other heavy industries; not managing their social and environmental issues properly can prove to be very costly. One not well thought out decision can mean:

• Divestment from major investors e.g. The Government Pension Fund of Norway, the world's second largest pension fund, have divested over $870 million were from two major minerals producers due to criticism over the environmental damages they caused.
• Losing the social license to operate e.g. After weeks of protests, a global gold producer lost access to South America’s largest gold mine. Acknowledging that it had not fully understood the concerns of the local communities, the company relinquished an estimated $1.7 billion in company earnings.
• Becoming tangled in a diplomatic rift e.g. A pulp company’s plans to build a pulp mill on the borders of two South American countries resulted in a court case at the International Court of Justice.
• Being involved in a multi-billion dollar lawsuit e.g. an US oil company has inherited a lawsuit – for ecological damages and human health impacts caused by massive oil spills in the rainforests of a South American country – when it bought the company responsible.

At a time where cost reduction is priority for most companies, this is money you cannot risk losing.

This conference specifically targets the mining, oil & gas, steel and other heavy industries as the kind of social and environmental risks they face are very similar. This practical cross-sector event sees some of the world’s largest companies in the aforementioned industries sharing best practise case studies in an honest and frank way.

On the frontline of extractive development, communities are increasingly intolerant of companies that disregards the local communities and sacrifice the environment for short-term economic benefits.

This conference brings together the most relevant case studies that address these very matters, and have them delivered to you by practitioners who had first hand experience.