Cairn Energy PLC
Corporate Responsibility Report 2009
Corporate Responsibility Report 2009
- CEO statement
- About Cairn
- Our priorities
- Our objectives
- Performance overview
- About this report
Our priorities
The complexity and scale of our business raises a variety of CR issues at local, national and international levels. During 2009, we concentrated on eight priority areas, as outlined below. We have sought to meet the challenges of these priority areas through the actions described throughout this report.
How we operate
Environment
Communities and Suppliers
Supported by responsible business practices
Underpinned by policies and principles
Stakeholder Engagement
Our activities are influenced by, and can impact, many different stakeholders at local, national and international levels. They affect our ability to carry out our activities and achieve our business goals, so we strive to develop strong, lasting relationships through open dialogue with all our stakeholders.
Business Ethics
Cairn is committed to behaving with honesty and integrity in all our business activities wherever we operate. We recognise that corruption has the potential to damage both our economic performance and our reputation as a business, as well as impacting disproportionately on poorer communities.
Environmental Impact
Our business operations can have an impact on the environment, especially as some of our exploration and production acreage lies in areas of environmental significance. We recognise our responsibilities and aim to avoid or minimise any negative impacts on the environment as a result of our operations.
Climate Change
Energy is essential for social and economic progress but as climate change is a complex, global issue with many causes (both natural and man-made), we recognise the need for a precautionary approach. Some of the activities associated with our operations, such as power generation, flaring, venting and transportation, produce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but we seek to minimise these at all times.
Employee Development
Our success is driven by our people, so employee engagement and development continue to be key focus areas for the Company. Our employee development programme is designed to ensure we meet our business objectives while offering our staff the opportunity to grow both personally and professionally.
Occupational Health and Safety
The nature of our work carries inherent risks, and the environments in which we operate can be challenging. We therefore need to ensure the health, safety and security of our employees and contractors on our sites, and protect all those who come into contact with our operations. We also recognise the importance of a healthy, supportive work environment to reduce absenteeism and promote morale and well being.
Community Development
We recognise that our activities can affect the social and economic environment of the communities in which we operate. This is particularly true where our presence dominates local industrial or commercial activity, such as the major oil and gas fields we are developing in Rajasthan, India. We recognise that being sensitive to our neighbours and making a positive social impact are important if we are to operate effectively over the long term.
Human Rights
At Cairn, we recognise human rights as fundamental and continually work to preserve the rights and conditions of all our stakeholders, including employees, suppliers and those affected by our activities. In Rajasthan, for example, we apply a ‘Rights Aware’ approach to safeguard the local community’s right to water in an area with limited water resources while accessing the water required to support our operations.
We believe that to identify and manage these environmental, social and economic issues, we need to listen to those who are impacted by our activities. We therefore place significant emphasis on our business risk management and stakeholder engagement processes. These will be particularly important as we move forward with our exploration activities in Greenland during 2010.
Our operational activities are supported by responsible business practices and underpinned by our CR Policies and Guiding Principles.
Our Core Values
Our CR strategy is based on our three Core Values – Respect, Relationships and Responsibility. These are at the heart of all we do and ensure that, through responsible practices, we have a sustainable business in the future.