The Sustainable Development Process at ConocoPhillips Canada

Fully integrating sustainable development into the business and developing a formalized process is essential to our long-term success. This process consists of the following steps:

Scoping and prioritizing issues

Our process begins with issues scoping, which is a comprehensive exercise involving multiple information sources. We solicit input from our stakeholders, including our employees who work closely with community members, as well as third-party advisory groups. We prioritize and validate the issues that matter most to our stakeholders and that may materially impact our business.

Developing strategies, plans and goal

 After we’ve prioritized the issues, we work with our different business groups to develop management plans. Senior leaders review and endorse the various plans, creating ownership and accountability for sustainable development throughout the company. Our sustainable development goals are incorporated into the formal goal-setting process we use for the rest of our business, such as reaching production or safety targets. This integrates them into our planning and operating processes.

Selecting appropriate performance measures

We believe if performance cannot be measured, it cannot be tracked or improved upon. When we select metrics, we attempt to select the indicators that best reflect performance. In some cases, we are able to use conventional metrics, such as the Global Reporting Initiative’s G3 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. In others, we propose new metrics that can be qualitative or quantitative, depending on the nature of the project being assessed. These become an integral part of measuring progress towards our goals.

Reporting on performance

We have both internal and external reporting requirements. Internally, we will continue to monitor our performance on a quarterly basis and will formally report our progress annually. We will continue to provide updated external reports and, with stakeholder input, will determine the most appropriate frequency and form for this reporting.Our objective is to develop natural resources in a sustainable manner. This means careful management of the economic, environmental and social aspects of all that we do.

The hallmarks of our management include:

• Integration - clearly and completely integrating economic, social and environmental considerations into strategic planning, decision-making and operating processes;
• Stakeholder Engagement – engaging our stakeholders so that we understand their diverse and evolving expectations and incorporate that understanding into our strategies;
• Life-Cycle Management – managing the full life-cycle impacts of our operations, assets, and products, utilizing such processes as front-end loading, staged decision analysis, and product stewardship;
• Knowledge Management – sharing our successes and failures in order to learn from our experiences; and
• Innovation – creating a culture that brings new, innovative thinking to the challenges of our evolving business environment.

We believe that by delivering on our commitment to sustainable development, we will become the best company to invest in, work for, partner with, and have as a supplier and a neighbor.