Goldcorp: CEO Message From 2013 Sustainability Report

Goldcorp's commitment to responsible mining and creating social and economic benefits for all of our stakeholders remain the basis for how we conduct our operations world-wide. 

On June 27, 2014, Goldcorp released our Annual Sustainability Report (csr.goldcorp.com) showcasing our 2013 performance and progress in delivering on our vision of “Together, Creating Sustainable Value”.

Following is a message about our progress on these and other milestones from Goldcorp President and CEO, Chuck Jeannes.

In a year that challenged the entire industry, Goldcorp’s commitment to delivering sustainable value to our stakeholders was unwavering. Our successes in 2013 were largely due to our financial discipline and agility in the face of challenging market conditions. Economic pressures sharpened our focus on reducing all-in sustaining costs and our Operating for Excellence program drove efficiency gains at every operation. That exercise, however, was not done at the expense of our commitment to sustainability. On the contrary, we remained as focused as ever on our Six Pillar Strategy, which puts people, safety and partnerships at the core of our operations.

Our Planet. Our Choices. Our Legacy.

One of 2013’s major achievements was the launch of our Sustainability Excellence Management System (SEMS). The SEMS is a framework and set of standards that incorporate best-in-class environmental, safety, social and human rights practices. Developing and implementing the SEMS is an enormous project for a company that operates within many jurisdictions. The SEMS will be the Goldcorp template for sustainability standards and compliance.

The human rights, labour and anti-corruption principles of the UN Global Compact – which we continue to uphold as a signatory member – are embodied in the SEMS, as are the standards of the International Cyanide Management Code, and the transparency and accountability responsibilities that come from our memberships and obligations in the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) and the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).

To mark the launch of the SEMS, we held a company-wide contest for an expression that captures the essence of our approach to environmental stewardship, just as Safe Enough for Our Families represents workplace safety. From hundreds of entries, the unanimous winner was: Our Planet. Our Choices. Our Legacy. We are implementing the SEMS throughout 2014 under this banner.

Marking Our Day of Remembrance

Despite our continuing emphasis on Fighting Fatalities at Goldcorp, we failed in that objective in 2013. We were all deeply saddened by the death of two colleagues in Mexico during the year.

In order to reinvigorate the focus on safety, we held our first annual Day of Remembrance on October 30, 2013. This was a milestone event for Goldcorp; the entire company – every office and every mine site – stopped work and paid respect to those who had lost their lives in a workplace incident. During this day, we all took part in safety awareness exercises and training.

Since the Day of Remembrance, we have seen a company-wide increase in safety leadership and accountability, and a marked decrease in incidents. With a renewed commitment to making Goldcorp Safe Enough for Our Families, I am certain we will continue to make progress toward eliminating fatalities in the workplace.

Collaborating with Our Communities

Last year saw the finalization of collaboration agreements with the Lac Seul and Mishkeegogamang Ojibway First Nations in northern Ontario. These are major agreements, years in the making, which establish the terms of employment and training opportunities, business opportunities and our financial contributions to the local communities. I believe they will set a framework for future collaborations, as we expand our operations in northern Canada and continue to collaborate on economic and social development.

As you will see in this report, we made significant investments in every one of our host communities, and not only in mining regions. Near our Vancouver head office, where some of Canada’s most vulnerable people struggle with poverty and addiction, we continue to contribute to the Goldcorp Centre for Mental Health, which hosts Vancouver’s Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) team, and many other valuable initiatives and organizations such as BC Special Olympics, Pacific Salmon Foundation and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

Promoting and Supporting Education

In every region, we provide financial and scholarship support to help local community members improve their prospects through education. In Mexico and Central America, we constructed, renovated and repaired classrooms, installed five fully equipped computer centres, and funded teachers to accommodate 1,600 students. We also funded 35 scholarships for students at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. This year we also continued supporting the CONALEP technical college near our Peñasquito mine, which has supplied many graduates to our operations.

We are active in our support of higher education in other jurisdictions as well: we made major donations for scholarships and program funding at universities with respected programs in mining geology, geophysics, chemistry, metallurgy and earth sciences, in Mexico City, South Dakota, Colorado, Nevada, Montana and British Columbia.

Environmental Stewardship

In recent years, energy management has become a key issue in our industry, as companies are increasingly recognizing the financial and physical impacts of climate change. In 2012, we announced a company-wide Energy Strategy with ambitious targets for energy efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions and the use of renewably sourced energy. While we made significant progress towards those goals – for example, our new natural gas pipeline in northern Ontario is reducing greenhouse gas emissions at the Red Lake mine and in nearby communities – in some regions we have been challenged to meet our targets. In 2014, we will review and reassess our goals, while we also incorporate the objectives of the Energy Strategy into our overall SEMS.

Transparency in Reporting

This Sustainability Report is an opportunity to celebrate our achievements over the past year and to evaluate areas for improvement going forward. This year, we again engaged Ernst & Young for external assurance, in accordance with our commitment as a member of the ICMM.

As we look to 2014 and beyond, we are focusing on putting in place a best-in-class sustainability management system that will ensure we deliver on our vision: Together, Creating Sustainable Value. I would like to take this opportunity to extend my personal thanks to our employees, our partners, our communities and all the stakeholders who support Goldcorp as we work towards this vision. This was a year when we, and our industry, were put to the test, and we still have work to do, but I am justifiably proud of our progress.

Chuck Jeannes

President and Chief Executive Officer

See more at: http://csr.goldcorp.com/