Sustainability at Santos
“For us, sustainability is about how our operations and actions can generate long-term value for our stakeholders including our communities, Traditional Custodians, employees, partners, suppliers and shareholders.”
Kevin Gallagher, Managing Director and CEO
For more about our approach to sustainability, please read our 2023 Sustainability and Climate Report.
2023 ESG performance highlights
Having a positive impact in our communities
Santos is committed to partnering with communities to build respectful and mutually beneficial relationships and delivering positive outcomes in the areas where we operate.
This includes:
- Be a leader in community engagement and cultural heritage management
- Have industry best-practice recruitment and development programs for meaningful career opportunities for communities and First Nations people
- Actively partner with First Nation and Indigenous businesses through our Supply Chain
- Provide meaningful training and employment opportunities for the communities in which we operate
- Create a positive legacy and build capacity in the communities where we operate
- Provide economic benefits to Indigenous, First Nations and local business through the creation of supply chain opportunities
- Build sustainable communities through supporting local businesses and paying local taxes and rates on time
- Invest in opportunities to uplift local, First Nations and Indigenous participation through sourcing activities
- Work in Partnership with Landowners and Landholders.
This is cumulatively supported by the involvement of local stakeholders in community development planning and monitoring. We aspire to partner with and be trusted by the communities where we operate. Santos’ Community Investment Framework aligns with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and helps ensure local stakeholders are involved in all stages of community development.
Indigenous Advisory Panel
In 2023 Santos established an Indigenous Advisory Panel (IAP), whose goal is for Santos leaders to work with Traditional Owners and deliver tangible, meaningful, and sustainable outcomes for their communities in the areas in which we operate in Australia.
The Indigenous Advisory Panel was born out of feedback from the CEO Yarning Circle held in November 2022 and has since met three times. Feedback from Traditional Owners focussed on ensuring talk leads to real action.
The IAP and Santos’ Indigenous Participation Plan (IPP) reflect our commitments to promote the social, economic, and cultural rights of Indigenous people.
For further information, you can see Santos’ 2023 Sustainability and Climate Report.
Jonathan Knight, a Wongkumara man and a member of the IAP was asked by the group to develop a piece of Art that represented the IAP story thus far.
Santos partners with Indigenous-owned supplier for Port Bonython operations
Indigenous-owned supplier Zancott Knight has been contracted by Santos to generate multiyear employment opportunities for local and Indigenous personnel in the Whyalla, and the broader Upper Spencer Gulf region in South Australia.
The multi-million dollar contract is expected to result in the Zancott Knight onsite workforce growth during the duration of the contract.
At the contract peak, it will engage semi-skilled and skilled personnel representing services such as electrical, carpentry, plumbing, civils, cleaning, and vegetation management.
Santos Chief Executive Officer Kevin Gallagher said Zancott Knight’s commitment to donate 10 per cent of company profits to Indigenous groups, supporting activities such as youth sponsorship and skills training opportunities, was aligned with Santos’ core value to improve the living standards in the communities where we operate.
You can read more about this partnership at Sustainability in action.
Target: Net-zero Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2040
Our Climate Transition Action Plan outlines our potential pathway to transform and decarbonise our business. This will drive progress to achieve our target of net-zero Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2040.
We support the objective of the Paris Agreement to limit global temperature rise to less than 2 degrees Celsius and pursue efforts to limit the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Sustainability Advocacy
All Santos advocacy activities, both including direct and indirect engagement including responses to Government consultations, are guided by the Company’s policy positions, including those relating to human rights, anti-bribery and corruption, climate, environment, health and safety, local and Indigenous communities and diversity and inclusion.
Human Rights
As a company with global operations, Santos is committed to supporting and respecting the protection of internationally recognised human rights as set out in the United Nations International Bill of Rights and works to align with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the Voluntary Principles for Security and Human Rights in our practices and procedures. This commitment is reflected in our Human Rights and Modern Slavery Policy.
Our commitment to the environment
Santos’ commitment to the environment is focused on:
- Decommissioning and rehabilitation
- Water
- Biodiversity
- Air
- Waste
Health and Safety
Santos is steadfast in pursuing safety excellence and is committed to conducting business activities in a manner that ensures all employees and contractors go home in a healthy and safe state.
People and Culture
In such a competitive employment market, Santos understands the need to differentiate to draw top talent into the business, and the importance of our culture to talent retention.
Core to our One Team Santos culture is creating an inclusive work environment and embracing a diverse workforce.
Economic Sustainability
To ensure our economic sustainability, Santos maintains a disciplined operating model to drive value and consistently generate free cash flow through the commodity price cycle.