Sustainability Report 2011 - Balfour Beatty Rail

Managing sustainability
What matters most
in our reporting
In 2009 we introduced a materiality process to help us prioritise which
issues we should be focusing on most in our sustainability reporting.
The issues in 2011 remained broadly the same and are reflected
in this year’s report. We will undertake a further review of what
matters most during 2012 when we refresh our sustainability
vision and roadmap.
Why this is matters to us
Our values, ethics, sustainability and safety programmes touch
every aspect of our business. These issues are complex and all
pervading. In order for our reporting to be effective, we need
to identify which of the issues in our sustainability roadmap,
ethics programme, approach to safety, development of our
people and community programmes are most important from
a materiality perspective. Those issues considered to have the
greatest impact on our business are then given greater weight
in the report narrative.
Materiality – focusing on what matters
In 2008, horizon-scanning techniques were used to help identify
the issues to address in our 2020 vision and roadmap.
For further details on our Global issues go to
P14 for more information
In early 2010 we held a series of in-depth workshops to consider
what additional issues should be included for our sustainability
reporting. Members of the executive team and other senior
managers took part in these workshops to help prioritise the
issues we should give most weight to our sustainability reports.
A list of issues, drawn from our previous reports and our
sustainability vision were filtered in two workshops: the first
explored the significance of issues to stakeholders, with the
second examining each issue’s potential to affect our ability
to deliver our strategic ambitions.
The stakeholders considered were investors, employees,
customers, government, Non-Governmental Organisations,
local communities, media and suppliers. Participants assessed
stakeholders’ interest in how we manage each issue, enabling us
to filter the issues by their relevance to stakeholders. In considering
stakeholder views, we discussed what we believed were the views
of stakeholders from existing knowledge within the business.
We did not consult stakeholders directly in this assessment.
Participants also considered an issue’s potential to help or harm
the business, filtering them according to the perceived depth of
impact, the likelihood of impact and the timeframe of impact
(before or after 2020).
These workshops highlighted nine topics particularly material to
our business for reporting purposes. See the diagram opposite. To
go direct to these sections of the report, click on the relevant box.
The materiality process was reviewed in early 2011 and we felt
this process remained valid a year on.
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Water is not yet a priority issue, but we believe its potential impact
and significance to stakeholders continues to increase. We also
believe that the importance of ecology will grow in future and have
engaged the UK Government on this topic during the past year.
The additional issues considered in our materiality workshops are
listed below. Coverage of these issues is dealt with in less detail
than our material issues. Click on the links against these issues to
take you either to the relevant section of this sustainability report
or the Annual Report and Accounts.
• Supplier relationships (see our Supply chain section)
• Employee engagement (see our Engaging with our stakeholders
section) (see our Engaging our people section)
• Community engagement (see our Community engagement and
investment section)
• Community investment (see our Community engagement and
investment section)
• Protecting ecological resources (see our Ecology section)
• Pensions (see our Annual report)
• Materials lifecycle management (see our Materials section)
• Water management (see our Water section)
• Employee health and wellbeing
(see our Wellbeing and absence section)
• Incentives for non-financial performance (see our Annual report)
• Diversity (see our Managing our diverse workforce section)
• Turnover and absence (see our Wellbeing and absence section)
• Local employment (see our Supply chain section)
• Migrant workers (see our Wellbeing and absence section)
2010 Workshop Attendees
• Andrew McNaughton, Chief Operating Officer
• Andy Rose, Group Managing Director (Engineering and Safety)
• Mike Peasland, CEO Construction Services UK
• Paul Willis, Head of HR
• Paul Stead, Group Safety Health and Environment Manager
• Andrew Hayward, Head of Compliance
• Duncan Murray, Director of Corporate Communications
• Jonathan Garrett, Group Head of Sustainability
• Hannah James, Senior Corporate Communications Executive
Our plans for 2012
During the refresh of our roadmap in 2012, we will undertake
a comprehensive materiality review to check that the issues we
have identified as material remain valid and what changes (if any)
are required to focus on what matters in our future reporting.
Balfour Beatty Sustainability Report 2011