Today we have been exploring what we are all doing to create a society that we are all proud to be part of.

Individuals will make the difference but companies like Alcoa play an important role as leaders, influencers and catalysts for change. In other words, someone has to stand up to make a difference.  As we look at our challenges in a troubled world, no amount of blame or looking back is going to serve our interests, instead there is work to be done with new thinking and commitment.

To secure the here and now, and provide for a resilient tomorrow, the game has changed.

There are dark clouds over our ‘lucky country’, the GFC has spread much further and much deeper than anyone predicted. I believe what matters most for business and society, is that we take a closer look at the fundamentals on which our communities are built – and inevitably this means closer scrutiny of our priorities and our values.

For us at Alcoa, it is not so much a sea change in attitude, but rather a continuing journey about responsible leadership.  We have long been accountable to, and engaged with, the communities in which we operate.  We have held CSR policies for decades.

Let’s be absolutely clear, everyone who works for a publicly listed or private enterprise is working to create value for their shareholders.  Alcoa worked out long ago that the best way to create value was by doing the right thing.

That is what CSR means.

Managing a sustainable business

We run large industrial facilities in mostly rural and regional areas - you can’t run operations like ours without CSR being embedded in the DNA of your organisation. 

Let me use some of Alcoa’s examples of our corporate social responsibility (or the way we do business as we call it) and its benefits, to exemplify the vital connect between business and society.

Community engagement plays a critical role in our success.  While many things we do are quietly effective in other areas, our actions have global impact and with other businesses, the community and government support, we are shaping the new order of things.

Maybe, if anything constructive can come out of the carnage of the GFC, it is that ‘corporate social responsibility’ will become, for everyone, the way business is done.

As a business person, I have to focus on sustainability.

Our facilities cost billions of dollars. Our employees and the communities in which we operate depend on us and we depend on them.

How do I continue to grow a sustainable business under the threat of climate change, or a collapsing global economy?

How do I ensure I have the most talented people? That my workforce feels trusted and respected – and is productive?

How do I ensure that I am delivering on our responsibility to the environment? And our communities? And our shareholders?

Let’s take climate change as a concrete example of one of the most significant challenges for us all.  The aluminium industry creates jobs, exports and highly valuable products here in Australia.  We are also leaders in technology development from mine site rehabilitation to carbon capture and storage.

To run our business we have to use energy - and quite a bit of it – and therefore we are responsible for substantial greenhouse gas emissions.

Almost two decades ago, Alcoa took a voluntary global leadership position, in addressing climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  We set a target of reducing our global greenhouse emissions by 25% based on 1990 outputs.

The due date for achieving that substantial emission reduction was 2010 but it was actually achieved in 2003. In the years since, we have gone further and reduced our greenhouse emissions by 33%.

These cuts were achieved by business efficiency and the development of our own technology.

Alcoa invests $25m a year on research and development to accelerate environmental improvements and we have developed carbon capture technology in Western Australia that has the potential to dramatically reduce the emissions of the global aluminium industry.

Reducing water consumption is also part of our environmental mindset, and it’s a major focus in our operations. Not long ago we began funding a three year Chair in Sustainable Water Management at Murdoch University, in WA.

We are the biggest co-generator of electricity in the country - gas-fired co-generation is the most thermal efficient and greenhouse-friendly non-renewable energy source. 

So we are seeking long term solutions to these global problems and we continue to move beyond the work gates and out into the community to do so.  Among our own staff, one in three has been an active participant in our climate change program to reduce household greenhouse emissions. This program -  ‘Make an Impact’ - was created with our long term sustainability partner Greening Australia and it enables individuals to measure and re-work their household energy use, to really think about how we are living in today’s carbon challenged world.     It’s fantastic and it works.  It has changed my behaviour and spread to every level of the organisation.  Now we have partnered Greening Australia’s new program ‘Breathe Easy’ to help people offset the emissions they can’t reduce.  It’s great stuff. 

Let’s not forget Alcoa is Australia’s largest recycler of aluminium. Recycling plays a critical role in reducing greenhouse emissions as it takes less than 5% of the power required to recycle aluminium than to smelt it in the first place.  Recycling is a critical part of our business and it’s another way we engage with community.

At the Pinjarra Refinery in WA, as part of our waste management program, we have a worm farm (we have ‘worm farm’ bins in all our offices).  Last year it saved about 140,000 kilograms of kitchen waste going to landfill.  Those wrigglers are not only turning rubbish into garden fertiliser, but we are engaging positively with young schoolchildren as we tour them through our worm farm and show them new possibilities. 

My point is that business does and must continue to work at multiple levels, engaging all of its capabilities, big and small.

At the big end, and a crucial aspect to industry’s ability to tackle climate change, is energy security.

I have been on the record for some time, saying it is critical that we have a national energy security strategy to guarantee Australia’s energy requirements for the next 50 to 100 years.

Just a couple of weeks ago, we heard the new American president announce his ‘new energy for America' plan.

As our own Prime Minister has also acknowledged, energy security is vital on two fronts.  First, as a weapon in the battle against climate change, and second as an integral element of national security at the level of individual nations. 

There is wide agreement that we must work together to develop a clean-fuel future.

Barack Obama calls for a seismic shift in thinking:

"It falls on us” he says, “to choose whether to risk the peril that comes with our current course or to seize the promise of energy independence." 

For Australia, too, energy independence looks to gas as a transitional fuel and to the timely adoption of renewable resources into the energy mix.

We have an opportunity to help carve Australia’s energy future, to see industry and individuals cut their emissions. Everything we do now will affect the generations to come.  My kids will know that I acted responsibly.

But I am not acting alone.

Our people - your people - are one of your business’ greatest assets.

Without the talent, intellect and loyalty of our people, we won’t retain our position as one of Australia’s largest exporters and deliver value to our shareholders.

At Alcoa we encourage and reward our people who volunteer in the community. I would argue that running strong volunteer programs is the crux of a strong connection between business and community - the best way to break barriers, share knowledge, and simply help each other.

Any employee of Alcoa who gives 50 hours of their time outside of work to a not for profit organisation earns US$250 for that organisation from the Alcoa Foundation.   Our 2008 volunteering figures are still being calculated but in 2007, our Australian employees clocked up almost 72,000 volunteer hours delivering over $325,000 for local community organisations. This is backed up by $6 million in funding from the company itself.

The Alcoa Foundation was established 57 years ago, and operates worldwide, supporting our volunteer effort, our conservation and sustainability programs, and many of our community programs.

Since its inception it has donated US$492 million to community partnerships.

I would like my time of leadership at Alcoa to be noted for its conviction to work with others in aligning business results with our life values.

Our lives, our thinking, our aspirations are continuous, not elements we can break into compartments and separate … one for work, one for home, one for out and about in the community.

I don’t think there has ever been a more pressing need for a true union of our economic, social and environmental goals. The global financial crisis will hopefully bring about change whereby government, business, the community, all of us, have to take a longer term view of what is right.

This partnership between business, society and government is hinged on the values that shape our leadership. Values that extend beyond the traditionally defined triple-bottom line of economic … environmental and social responsibility, achieving a state where corporate social responsibility runs through the veins of your business. It’s in the DNA.

Last month Alcoa was awarded the top ranking in the basic resource category of the 2008 Covalence Ethical Ranking and was also chosen as one of the top ten ethical companies across all industries and companies.

And Alcoa has just been named one of the most sustainable corporations in the world, in the fifth annual Global 100 ranking of the top role models in sustainable business practice during the World Economic Forum in Davos.

That makes me proud.