Community
"If Newmont is to continue to grow as a company, maintain its production pipeline, and succeed in current and future business operations around the world, it must manage its community relationships more effectively. Newmont must act quickly to ensure that stakeholder engagement and community relationship building are integral components of Newmont's business operations."
- Newmont Community Relationships Review, 2009
In 2007, Newmont began an in-depth study of our policies and practices regarding relationships with local communities near our operations. The result, made public in March 2009, was a Community Relationships Review (CRR) report, the scope and depth of which was unprecedented in the natural resources sector.
The Community Relationships Review was the response to a shareholder resolution submitted to the Annual General Meeting of Stockholders in 2007. Newmont's Board of Directors and management supported the resolution because it aligned with Newmont's values and our strong belief that establishing and maintaining healthy relationships with local communities is a business imperative that speaks directly to Newmont's ability to access land, capital, resources, approvals, and to attract and retain employees.
The study provided an opportunity for Newmont to listen to stakeholders - both from within the company as well as externally - and hear from them about how well we are doing. We learned that we do some things very well, and that when we take the time to engage with local communities, to listen to their concerns, and respond in a timely fashion, we gain their respect and trust. We also learned that we do not apply such practices consistently across our operations over time.
We also learned that many of the policies and standards discussed in our prior sustainability reports are considered to be fairly good. However, they can be improved, especially in ensuring that they are not treated as discrete, unrelated elements whose outcome is simply a "check the box" act for an auditor's report.
A critical element of this effort is the safeguarding of human rights. This idea guides our approach to working with our many stakeholder groups, including local communities and Indigenous peoples. In addition, our human rights-related commitments include our participation in the UN Global Compact and the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights. In this section, we elaborate on how we integrate human rights into our stakeholder engagement processes.
In 2010, many of our efforts focused on taking the lessons of the CRR to the site level and strategically aligning our Environment and Social Responsibility efforts and community relationships with Newmont as a whole. This includes building a forward-looking campaign that views all of the company's activity from the perspectives of the host communities where we operate and working to integrate ESR into every aspect of Newmont activity.
Specific activities in 2010 included:
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- Newmont Community Relationships Review, 2009
In 2007, Newmont began an in-depth study of our policies and practices regarding relationships with local communities near our operations. The result, made public in March 2009, was a Community Relationships Review (CRR) report, the scope and depth of which was unprecedented in the natural resources sector.
The Community Relationships Review was the response to a shareholder resolution submitted to the Annual General Meeting of Stockholders in 2007. Newmont's Board of Directors and management supported the resolution because it aligned with Newmont's values and our strong belief that establishing and maintaining healthy relationships with local communities is a business imperative that speaks directly to Newmont's ability to access land, capital, resources, approvals, and to attract and retain employees.
The study provided an opportunity for Newmont to listen to stakeholders - both from within the company as well as externally - and hear from them about how well we are doing. We learned that we do some things very well, and that when we take the time to engage with local communities, to listen to their concerns, and respond in a timely fashion, we gain their respect and trust. We also learned that we do not apply such practices consistently across our operations over time.
We also learned that many of the policies and standards discussed in our prior sustainability reports are considered to be fairly good. However, they can be improved, especially in ensuring that they are not treated as discrete, unrelated elements whose outcome is simply a "check the box" act for an auditor's report.
A critical element of this effort is the safeguarding of human rights. This idea guides our approach to working with our many stakeholder groups, including local communities and Indigenous peoples. In addition, our human rights-related commitments include our participation in the UN Global Compact and the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights. In this section, we elaborate on how we integrate human rights into our stakeholder engagement processes.
In 2010, many of our efforts focused on taking the lessons of the CRR to the site level and strategically aligning our Environment and Social Responsibility efforts and community relationships with Newmont as a whole. This includes building a forward-looking campaign that views all of the company's activity from the perspectives of the host communities where we operate and working to integrate ESR into every aspect of Newmont activity.
Specific activities in 2010 included:
- Rollout of our revised social responsibility standards
- A social audit pilot program that emerged from the revision of social responsibility standards
- Initiation of a Conflict Management and Resolution Training program, piloted at our Ahafo operations in Ghana, designed to improve our ability to identify, address and resolve conflicts more effectively
- Continued development and rollout of our ESR-Exploration Guidebook, which establishes standards and provides tools for managing community relationships and environmental issues at our exploration projects
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