By Ross Jackson/Staff Reporter
Between all the stands promoting the technology and services of the world’s major oil and gas players, the Social Responsibility Village at the World Petroleum Congress (WPC) exhibition highlights some of the most sustainable and effective charity and development programmes currently being conducted by oil and gas companies around the world.
James Shaw, a social responsibility adviser for the World Petroleum Congress, explained the initiative seen at this edition of the WPC. “Back in 2000, the 16th WPC, we introduced an element of social responsibility to get companies to think bigger picture about what their footprint is on the ground, and its evolved over the number of congresses.”
From all the programmes submitted for the exhibition, the organisers sought out the most replicable and sustainable projects from around the world that are not “tokenism” or “chequebook consultation” or simply “pay to make the problems go away”.
“It’s a genuine interest in what the company is doing and its commitment to the communities where they work” promoting “human development,” said Shaw.
Shaw, who works as a community relations manager at a Canadian oil and gas company, said: “If you went into a community as an oil and gas company and just muscled your way in, what kind of relationship have you built with the community? The way I look at it is governments grant permits but communities give permission. You need that long-term relationship with the community to be successful. In a number of regulated countries there are processes that companies have to go through to get their licence to operate and in fact their social licence to operate. If you end up in a regulatory process time and time again, that costs you millions and millions of dollars, where as if you work collaboratively with the community and look for solutions – my way of looking at it is: what can you do at the kitchen table versus the courtroom? How much more successful are you going to be? I can show definitively in my company that by doing this we save millions of dollars by not having to hire lawyers, by not having to go to regulatory hearings or go to court.”
Exhibitors included the Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology, a Canadian NGO that provides training, education and technical consulting to develop clean water sources in third world countries.
The employees of Golder Associates, an engineering, design, construction and environmental consulting firm, have raised over $1.4mn through fund-raising activities and put the money into a trust fund to invest in small businesses, which then goes to fund homes for orphans and families in Africa who have been affected by the Aids epidemic. A spokeswoman for the company said that this is a very sustainable model for corporations to adopt for development and charitable contributions to developing countries.
Oil India Limited has been operating a community development programme in Assam in northeast India to help develop the local economy in a way that prevents dependence on the oil and gas business. The programme started as a self-help group for women to teach them marketable and useful skills to help them earn money and run their own businesses. There are now over 4,000 self-help groups covering 200 villages helping around 30,000 families. Assam’s female residents can now generate their own income by turning locally produced resources and materials into value added products such as clothing and material, while men, who were previously single-crop farmers, have expanded production to several crops, animal husbandry and fisheries, with a total output increase of 30-40%.
Tridiv Hazarika, the secretary for this project at Oil India Limited, said that banks are now “running after our project because loan recovery is over 98% in some of the activities, which is phenomenal in the country.”
Maersk Oil has been supporting the “Time for Arts” project in Brazil, which has helped to introduce dance, art and theatre to schools across the country through workshops and training.
Camilla Cardia, a spokeswoman for Maersk, said that this programme is the first contact most of these students, aged 7-12, have had to express their feelings through an art form and get things off their chest in a new way. Many of the children come from troubled backgrounds as the schools chosen for the programme are in impoverished and turbulent communities. The programme has helped to increase school attendance figures and participation as well as teach important values such as environmental and community protection. Teachers have responded positively to the programme as it supports their goals for the children’s education, and the project has reached 12,000 students so far and will continue to reach more schools in the coming years.
The Global Women in Management programme, which is a month-long workshop for female leaders of NGOs conducted by the Centre for Development and Population Activities, has reached over 500 female leaders due to ExxonMobil’s support as part of its Women’s Economic Opportunity Initiative.
Sasol has helped to drill dozens of bore holes across Mozambique to improve access to fresh water, investing $1.4mn in local projects. The South African company has also invested $2.5mn to provide vocational training in Mozambique to help support the local oil and gas industry.
Shaw explained: “I think what’s happening is that companies are coming to learn that social responsibility is a business imperative. They can actually put a tangible pin on the wall and say we increased our profitability or access to markets or to land by doing this. It makes business sense to do it so why aren’t we doing it?”
