Being Good Neighbours

Our Value of 'Care for the Community and our Environment' requires that we listen to and work with the community, treat water as a precious resource, minimise environmental impacts and leave no legacies. This is further reinforced with our Sustainable Communities Policy.

Our Health, Safety, Environment & Community Policy requires our sites to comply with appropriate local, state and federal regulations. Environmental and community impact assessments are conducted where legally required. Each of our sites determines the level of community engagement and development that is appropriate for that site. For example:

Major capital projects

Moranbah, in Queensland, Australia, is a modern coal mining town of approximately 10,000 people. It is two hours inland from the coastal city of Mackay and has a large itinerant population in excess of 1,500, mainly workers who fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) to work in the mines.

The $935 million ammonium nitrate plant we are building in Moranbah, Queensland, Australia is designated as a Major Hazard Facility by Government regulations. Major Hazard Facilities (MHF) are "facilities that have the potential to cause major accidents, where the consequences may rival natural disasters in terms of loss of life, injury, damage to property and disruption of activities affecting people at the workplace and the surrounding community and environment."

As an MHF, the site must provide "information to, and opportunities for, consultation with the neighbouring community." The project team has actively engaged with local government and the community to meet and exceed these requirements. A communications plan was prepared and implemented. It included hosting regular public forums during the project as well as the production of a range of printed information, which was made available via the local government communication channels. A keynote presentation about the project was given at a local secondary school event and attendance at other events allowed two way dialog with the local community. Continuing communications via local government newsletters are planned. Following the success of the communications model used for the Moranbah project, it will be used for other major projects, as appropriate.

The site at Moranbah will employ approximately 100 employees and contractors when it is operational in mid-2012. IPL has actively recruited employees for the facility from the local area. 1.53 Where suitable skills and experience were not available locally, we recruited and relocated employees from elsewhere in Australia and overseas, rather than use the FIFO model, which often has negative social impacts on communities. This has resulted in employees from South Africa, India and other countries moving to Moranbah. Incitec Pivot has provided housing and relocation services to help these new employees and their families settle into the town. An example of the work that has been done in this area is the creation of child care facilities. Limited access to child care was identified as a problem by new employees moving to the area. IPL responded by supporting the use of Company-owned housing for the operation of family day care facilities. The Company pays for any building works needed to meet regulations and helps with licencing and other business commencement activities. A seven-place child care facility is now in operation, with more planned.

Reducing the impact of our operations

We also work with communities to reduce the impacts of our existing operations. An example of this is the modification to explosives testing that was implemented as residential estates began to appear near an explosives test site that is part of our Dyno Nobel explosives R&D facilities in Lehi, Utah, in the United States.

To reduce the noise and vibration experienced by local residents during explosive testing, we reconfigured the test pit and test schedule, by:

Keeping the community informed

At a five year, $6 million remediation project in Gibson Island, Victoria, Australia, a team led by IPL engineers and environmental specialists is remediating soil and groundwater containing hydrocarbons, a legacy of the use of the site as a trucking depot before it was purchased by IPL and used for fertiliser distribution. The site has been reopened as a fertiliser distribution centre, a development welcomed by the local farming community. The remediation works mean some disruption and noise for the local community, so regular information sessions are being held in the local hall to keep local residents informed and allow two way communication.

As a way of acknowledging the disruption caused by the project, the IPL project team made improvements in the town, including building an access ramp on the local 'rail trail' picnic area and erecting shade cloths above a children's playground.

Surplus clean soil from the remediation site is also being made available free to local farmers to construct roadways, dams or bunds.