Communities
Good community relations are as necessary for our business success as the effective management of our operations. This belief is at the heart of our overall approach to communities and is why we build good quality relationships with the people in the areas where we operate.
Wherever we operate, we seek to understand the social, environmental and economic implications of our activities, both for the local community and for the overall economy. We discuss mutual benefits and obligations with local governments and community representatives, and agree on the objectives that will secure long term results.
By understanding our socioeconomic interaction with communities, we can optimise benefits and reduce negative impacts for those communities and our operations alike.
- Knowledge
- Engage
- Programmes
- Heritage
- Results
Over time we have developed a successful communities model based on building knowledge, engaging and developing programmes that respond to business and communities' priorities.
We use a number of processes to increase our knowledge of communities' needs, and understand how our presence can be of greatest benefit to them.
The first step is often a community baseline assessment. These studies help us to identify the potential risks and opportunities of our presence in an area. Through baseline studies, we gather data on demography, the labour market, families' and individuals' wellbeing and education profiles. We build up a picture of the key social, economic and environmental factors that affect a community, and understand what would drive change.
We also use social impact assessments and social risk analysis to improve our knowledge about communities. The information they provide enables us to identify potential risks and opportunities to both the business and community.
With social impact assessments, we look at the changes that may occur against the baseline due to a proposed activity, such as a project development, expansion or closure. We conduct social risk analyses to assess the risks and opportunities that these changes would pose to communities. We can then either avoid the risks or propose mitigation strategies to offset them.
The knowledge that we gather from these assessments forms the basis of our multi year communities plans. These plans are internally and externally monitored to ensure they continue to respond to changing requirements.
Use, reuse, recycle - our tyre strategy
- A recent global shortage of heavy mobile equipment tyres led Rio Tinto to form a taskforce that would look for opportunities to preserve a tyre's use at every stage of its life.
- See all "Our approach" features
Video
Project Daybreak
This video outlines Project Daybreak a project built on an old mine that is a social project aimed at sustainable development and building a sense of community.
