Rio Tinto is regarded as an industry leader in terms of our economic contribution and social and environmental responsibility, the three pillars of sustainable development. However, we continue to seek improvement in our performance and in 2003 distributed the revised statement of business practice, The way we work, to all employees throughout the Group. This commits us to transparency, corporate accountability and policies that contribute to the global transition to sustainable development.

Rio Tinto's first priority is safety, a measure critical to good performance in other areas of the business. I very much regret to report that there were six deaths during 2003 at operations we manage. There were 468 lost time injuries and the lost time injury frequency rate decreased by five per cent to 0.81.

Setting standards and high but achievable targets are key drivers of performance improvement. To complement our safety standards, we are implementing Group wide occupational health and environment standards. We are targeting fewer workplace exposures and new cases of occupational disease. We seek improved efficiency of greenhouse gas emissions, energy use and fresh water withdrawn from the environment. The targets have been integrated into business plans to ensure that fully resourced and costed action plans are in place to achieve them.

All our businesses produce local social and environment reports and are beginning to use the reports as a basis for closer consultation with their communities. These reports underpin a genuine and widespread commitment to strong community relations. Operations are seeking to develop ways to integrate sustainable development considerations into key business decision making processes. Our global partnership programmes involving 15 organisations, such as Earthwatch, BirdLife International, and WWF Australia, help us focus our policies and programmes for shared objectives.