This year’s Report has been renamed from the Health, Safety, Environment and Community (HSEC) Report to the BHP Billiton Sustainability Report. The change reflects the further evolution of the Report since BHP Billiton commenced public reporting on non-financial performance in 1997. As well as reflecting the progressive broadening of the Report to cover socio-economic and ethical issues, the title more closely aligns with the Global Reporting Initiative Guidelines for Sustainability Reporting.

The Report demonstrates strong outcomes against many aspects of BHP Billiton’s health, safety, environment and community performance. During the year they also reviewed a number of their key HSEC documents, central to which is the Sustainable Development (formerly their HSEC Policy). However, challenges remain and the Report also describes BHP Billiton’s strategies and programs to address these issues.

Following encouraging stakeholder feedback, the Report is again available in two formats: a printed Summary Report for general readership and a detailed web-based Full Report that can be viewed at http://sustainability.bhpbilliton.com/2005/report.

The website is the key platform for BHP Billiton’s reporting and they have therefore endeavoured to improve the usability of the site. Features include information on the process and criteria used to select our Sustainability Challenges; further detail on their approach to Sustainable Development, including their vision and strategy; and for those seeking specific assistance in locating information of most relevance to them, a Browsing Guide has been incorporated. A number of Case Studies are again included in the Report, this year with added detail, to demonstrate the opportunities and challenges BHP Billiton face.