What are the material issues the company has identified?   

In its 2021 Annual and Sustainability Report Sandfire identified a range of material issues, such as operating responsibly, safety, health and wellbeing, climate change, tailings and waste. Among these, creating economic value for its stakeholders stands out as a key material issue for Sandfire.

Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards              

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:

“The reporting organization shall identify its stakeholders, and explain how it has responded to their reasonable expectations and interests.”

Stakeholders must be consulted in the process of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.

Key stakeholder groups Sandfire engages with:

To identify and prioritise material topics Sandfire engaged with its stakeholders through the following channels:

Stakeholder Group	Method of engagement
Employees	·      Employee engagement surveys ·      ESG and materiality surveys ·      Performance reviews ·      Committees and working groups ·      Newsletters and company announcements
Contractors/ Suppliers	·      Meetings ·      Site visits
Local Communities	·      Meetings ·      Site visits ·      Community events and activities ·      Stakeholder Committees ·      Materiality surveys ·      Media (brochures, radio, tv, website)
NGO’s and Not for Profits	·      Partnership progress reports ·      Meetings ·      Site visits ·      Community events and activities ·      Stakeholder Committees ·      Materiality surveys ·      Media (brochures, radio, tv, website)
Indigenous Peoples	·      Meetings ·      Heritage surveys and site visits ·      Agreement negotiations
Government/ Regulators	·      Meetings ·      Regulatory reporting ·      Site visits
Investors	·      Quarterly results reporting ·      Half yearly reporting ·      Annual reporting ·      Annual General Meeting ·      ASX announcements ·      Website ·      Investor roadshows, briefings and forums

What actions were taken by Sandfire to create economic value for its stakeholders?

In its 2021 Annual and Sustainability Report Sandfire reports that it took the following actions for creating economic value for its stakeholders:

• Creating economic value for employees
• The people who work with Sandfire are its greatest asset. Accordingly, Sandfire aims to create an inclusive and supportive workplace, where people are empowered. In FY2021, Sandfire paid $60,800 for employee benefits, wages and salaries.

• Creating economic value for shareholders
• In FY2021, Sandfire paid $259 million ($1.55 per share) in cumulative Dividends to shareholders.

• Creating economic value for local suppliers
• In FY2021, Sandfire paid $296,854,236 to local suppliers in Australia, $240,409,013 to local suppliers in Western Australia and $11,840,273 to local suppliers in the Mid West Economic Region, WA.

• Supporting communities
• In FY2021, Sandfire spent $497,358 in voluntary community investment (partnership contributions, sponsorships and donations, in-kind contributions).

Which GRI Standards and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been addressed?

The GRI Standard addressed in this case is: Disclosure 201-1 Direct economic value generated and distributed

Disclosure 201-1 Direct economic value generated and distributed corresponds to:

• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
• Targets: 8.1, 8.2
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
• Targets: 9.1, 9.4, 9.5

 

78% of the world’s 250 largest companies report in accordance with the GRI Standards

SustainCase was primarily created to demonstrate, through case studies, the importance of dealing with a company’s most important impacts in a structured way, with use of the GRI Standards. To show how today’s best-run companies are achieving economic, social and environmental success – and how you can too.

Research by well-recognised institutions is clearly proving that responsible companies can look to the future with optimism.

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References:

This case study is based on published information by Sandfire, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original please revert to the following link:

https://www.sandfire.com.au/site/PDF/7ac0175c-dc97-4c20-9971-8f4bc672d0ca/2021AnnualandSustainabilityReport 

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