Stockland Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Report

Our overall CR&S strategy

Our materiality process

Our CR&S Approach

Our approach to CR&S

Doing the right thing as a property owner, manager and developer is about dealing with risk, seeking opportunities and creating long-term value for our investors. It is about balancing the needs and interests of our stakeholders.

Over the past year we have refined our approach to CR&S. Our strategy for the past year included:

  • Engaging with our stakeholders, specifically our people, suppliers, partners, investors, customers and regulators in the marketplace; and the wider community,
  • Taking care of the environment in which we operate, including identifying and responding to the risks and opportunities associated with climate change.

CR&S governance

CR&S Board Committee

Our CR&S Board Committee assists the Board to oversee Stockland's commitment to operate its business ethically, responsibly and in a sustainable way. The Committee met five times during FY09.

The following Directors were members of the Committee at the close of the financial year:

  • Mr N Greiner (Chair) - Non-Executive Director,
  • Mr G Bradley - Non-Executive Director,
  • Mr B Neil - Non-Executive Director,
  • Mr M Quinn - Managing Director.

Reporting

A monthly report on CR&S is submitted to the Executive Committee and the Board. Additionally, all stakeholder issues are reported at Board and Executive Committee level.

CR&S Employee Committee

Our CR&S Employee Committee was formed in 2004 and meets monthly to track progress against the CR&S strategy. The Committee is chaired by the general manager of CR&S and its current members include our national sustainability managers, as well as representatives working in government relations, stakeholder engagement, health, safety and environment, and human resources.

Our overall CR&S strategy

CR&S strategy

We revised our CR&S strategy in April 2009 to better align with our reporting year and to inform the commitments set out in this report. We also reflected on how to best address the amended sustainability assurance standard, AA1000AS and more effectively encompass the principles associated with the standard:

  • Inclusivity - Understanding who our stakeholders are,
  • Materiality - Ensuring that we have addressed the key issues of interest or concern,
  • Responsiveness - Accounting for how we have addressed these key issues.

An external stakeholder forum helped inform our CR&S strategy-setting program. The forum provided feedback on our performance, as well as on emerging key issues and expectations for the coming year. This process also assisted us with determining our material CR&S issues for us to focus on for the coming year. We see FY10 as a year of transition in our CR&S strategy, as we improve our systems to determine material CR&S issues as seen through the eyes of our stakeholders in line with the amended assurance standard.

Our materiality process

Engaging stakeholders in developing our CR&S strategy

Our CR&S strategy was then developed by our CR&S Employee Committee. We explored our key stakeholder groups and examined their areas of concern and interest. We identified sources of stakeholder data and feedback that we could use to form a clearer view of our stakeholders' interests.

This process helped us identify a number of priority areas of focus (material themes) for FY10. These issues included:

  • Stakeholder engagement,
  • Employee wellbeing,
  • Affordability of our products and services,
  • Health and safety of our people and contractors,
  • Community development,
  • Energy efficiency,
  • Climate change,
  • Natural resource management.

Our strategy was refined by our sustainability managers, and reviewed and endorsed by our CR&S Board Committee in May 2009. The strategy has provided the basis for sustainability plans for our Residential, Commercial Property and UK businesses. Monthly CR&S Employee Committee meetings provide an opportunity to review progress against the strategy.

Our goal is to review our performance from both our own and our stakeholders' points of view. We need time to improve our systems to do this successfully and recognise that FY10 is a period of transition for our strategy as we incorporate stakeholder input into our systems.