Earning the trust of our neighbours starts with listening to the different points of view in a community. We typically use inputs from community panels, open days, surveys and local governments to understand what our main impacts are, and what matters most to the community. We then aim to work in partnership with communities to reduce the negative impacts from our operations and produce local economic benefits through our business activities and social investment.

In the past, some sites built excellent working relationships with their neighbours. Others lost community trust. Much depended on the personal interest and engagement skills of the local managers. In response, we have created a more structured approach and worked to share good practices across our operations.

By the end of 2006, more than 60 sites had social performance plans. These included all our major manufacturing and chemicals facilities and upstream operations where social impacts could be high. The plans are based on the guidelines provided by our social performance advisers. Implementing these plans requires facilities to identify and work with their main local stakeholders and assess and manage their impacts on the community in a systematic way.

There is more to be done. Spreading the needed engagement skills and commitment is a clear priority, especially to teams developing major new projects. To help, our social performance advisers work with external experts to provide coaching and support to existing operations and future projects. Social performance skills are part of our leadership training programmes and are being integrated into the curriculum of our Commercial and Project Academies.

Three examples of interactions with our neighbours: Corrib, Ireland, Pinedale, USA and Geelong, Australia.
Also available: information on our work with communities in Nigeria and Sakhalin.