Take a Step Back for a Fresh Look Forward

By: Brent Bergeron, Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs

The progress Goldcorp has made over the last year reflects the commitment to our vision, Together, Creating Sustainable Value. 2013 saw many notable highlights. Here are a few:

At every Goldcorp site, there is community support and collaboration. At Red Lake, we signed a Collaboration Agreement with the Lac Seul First Nation, which establishes a framework for trust and cooperation in the future; at Musselwhite, we committed to working with Wataynikaneyap Power, an Aboriginal-owned organization, to extend the power grid to remote communities. Some of the awards we won for community and environmental work include:

• Windigo Catering, a Musselwhite-area business that we’ve supported, won the PDAC Award of Excellence for Aboriginal Achievement in Business.
• The Association of Fundraising Professionals awarded us the Giving Hearts Award on National Philanthropy Day, for our leadership in community investments and philanthropy.
• We were recognized as a Socially Responsible Company by the Mexican Centre for Philanthropy (CEMEFI) and the Alliance for Corporate Social Responsibility (AliaRSE) for the sixth year in a row.
• The Porcupine mine’s reclamation work was recognized with the Tom Peters Memorial Mine Rehabilitation Award.

Our ongoing work in improving employee safety and well-being was recognized in many ways—the HR Diversity Award from the Mining Association of BC, and the Silver Helmet Safety Award from the Mexico Chamber of Mining—and this year we were gratified to be named to the Randstad list of Canada’s top employers. Why was this special? Because the Randstad is a widely respected “people’s choice” award based on the polled opinions of a huge international sample of employees and job-seekers.

Last year, we began formalizing our corporate sustainability practices into a set of corporate standards, to support our vision of Together, Creating Sustainable Value.

Internally, the communication between CSR teams is very open—at every level—and information sharing is embedded into daily practices. There is more dialogue between CSR teams and other departments, which helps with the integration of CSR into our overall business.

At Goldcorp, we take pride in our corporate governance, and in the transparency of our communication. This year Globe and Mail’s Board Games ranked our Board of Directors #12 in the country. The Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada’s Corporate Reporting Awards, recognized our website, social and multi-media use their Electronic Disclosure category. We’ve made great strides in communicating our CSR work: our Above Ground magazine and online blog have grown in sophistication and elicited great responses from our stakeholders. The video that was created for the 2012 AGM, One Company, Thousands of Stories and the 2012 Sustainability Report were more thorough and engaging than ever before.

And Anna Tudela, our VP of Regulatory Affairs and Corporate Secretary was awarded the Peter Dey Governance Achievement Award for her significant influence on the way our company is governed, regulated, and how we communicate with investors and the wider community.

Our senior management team gained many accolades: Ian Telfer, Chairman, was named one of Canada’s Top 25 most powerful business people and listed in The Power 50 of Canadian Business. Chuck Jeannes, Goldcorp President & CEO was named BC’s Best CEO in the Large Public Company category. Charlene Ripley (our new general counsel and executive vice president) and Maryse Belanger (Senior Vice President, Technical Services) made Mining UK’s Top 100 Inspirational Women in Mining List, and Maryse Belanger was nominated for YWCA’s Women of Distinction award in Business & the Professions.

Over the past year, more of our staff participated in programs like the Global Corporate Challenge, which focuses on health and exercise, and our Day of Remembrance, which focused on safety by recognizing those who have lost their lives in mining. Hundreds contributed to the Ripple Effect campaign on environmental awareness, and to the Mexico hurricane relief efforts. These programs bring social, environmental and safety issues to the forefront, and they bring us all together as a family.

As we look back on the year, we have to admit, it’s not all perfection. While we’re making great strides, we can all benefit from the process of continual improvement. Two areas worth noting here:

1. Identifying and monitoring Key Performance Indicators
   When we’re collaborating with communities, we still struggle to identify ways to measure our success, or lack of it, in achieving our sustainable development goals. To identify and track the most effective KPIs, we need support from development experts such as NGOs and international organizations.
2. Safety and safety leadership
   Over the past 18 months we have worked alongside other mining companies to research and analyze the causes of fatalities and Potential Fatal Occurrences. What we have seen is an industry-wide decrease in the number of injuries. Unfortunately, the industry has not achieved similar reductions in the occurrence of fatalities. Our track record as an industry demonstrates that we are not yet Safe Enough for Our Families and clearly we still have a lot of work to do. This focus on eliminating fatalities will continue to be our highest priority.

Looking back at this year overall has allowed us to review our company and our commitments. The road ahead will not always be easy, but we must continue to be a responsible company—to reward our strengths while recognizing our blind spots— and to continue along the path of continuous improvement.

For more information please visit:  http://www.goldcorp.com/English/Responsible-Mining/default.aspx