Ethical Corporation, the leading business intelligence company for sustainability, today announced that 25+ foremost oil, gas and mining companies will meet at a two day summit this April to debate the future of CSR in their industry.

‘Risk’ not ‘responsibility’ is the watchword of 2013, says Tom Burke, Climate Change Advisor to Rio Tinto. ‘Business needs to wake up to the interconnected nature of risks such as resource security and climate change.’

A lot has changed in the last 12 months for companies operating in this industry: the emergence of SEC regulations on conflict minerals, requirements for more financial transparency, the EU Accounting and Transparency Directives and John Ruggie’s Principles on Human Rights, among others. The frequent lack of clarity on what these laws and guidelines mean in practice is driving the extractive sector to re-think the way they operate.

More than ever, social performance and community engagement are key to securing a social license to operate, as echoed by Anglo American’s Head of Social Performance, Jon Samuel. When asked what the firm’s priorities were, he said: ‘Boosting community development impact through leveraging our core business more effectively, implementing ways to get good social performance widely recognised by key external stakeholders, managing social risks in our capital project pipeline, and ensuring that we are fully compliant with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.’

Toby Webb, Ethical Corporations Founder said: ‘This event is the meeting place for all social/environmental/CSR departments in the extractive industry – this year is looking better than ever, we’re introducing new conference formats including round tables and focused panel debates to generate more robust, in-depth discussion on these key topics. We’re looking forward to it!’

Scheduled to speak at the event are:

* Anglo American* *Shell * *Anglo Gold Ashanti* *Arcelor Mittal* *Chevron* * IPIECA* *Calvert* * De Beers Group* *Ethical Corporation* *Fauna and Flora International* *First Peoples* *Care* *ICMM* *Global Witness* *Institute for Human Rights & Business* *Fundacion Chile* *Centerra Gold* *Nordic Mining* *Publish What You Pay* *Repsol* *Rio Tinto* *Trafigura*

Ethical Corporation’s summit will focus on a variety of CSR topics and address the social and environmental risks affecting large extractive corporations.

It will tackle human rights, regulations on transparency and conflict minerals, stakeholder and community engagement as well as environmental performance, biodiversity and more.

To have a full run down of the conference, please visit the 4th annual CSR for Extractives Industries Summit.

For more information please contact Elina Yumasheva at elina.yumasheva@ethicalcorp.com  or +44 (0) 20 7375 7573.

Ethical Corporation provides business intelligence for sustainability to more than 3,000 multinational companies every year. We publish the leading responsible business magazine, website, and research reports. Our conferences are widely recognised as the best in the field of corporate responsibility and sustainability.

Reuters Events Sustainable Business

Reuters Events Sustainable Business

Reuters Events Sustainable Business has a mission to help businesses around the globe do the right thing by their customers and the world. We believe this is not only how to guarantee a future for all, but makes good business sense. We serve CSR, compliance, risk and governance communities with topical and insightful business intelligence and meeting places.

We provide business intelligence to more than 3,000 multinational companies every year. Our customers are also NGOs, think-tanks, academia, governments and consultancies. We publish the leading responsible business magazine, website, and research reports. Our conferences are widely recognised as the best in the field.

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