Community and Stakeholder Relations - Responsible Development

Community and Stakeholder Relations

Major Community Opportunities and Risks	Opportunities: Effective stakeholder relations are critical to ensure timeliness of projects, and to enhance trust and reputation. Community investments can have a positive impact on the well-being of our stakeholders. Risks: Interruption of operations and delays to new project approvals due to stakeholder concerns. Without proper infrastructure in the community it is difficult to attract and retain employees.
Policy	Our Stakeholder Relations Policy reflects our commitment to include stakeholders in our project planning process and working toward mutually beneficial solutions. Our Aboriginal Affairs Policy is built around the principles of responsibility, recognition and respect.
Operational Responsibility	The majority of community investment is managed through the Suncor Energy Foundation (SEF). Any funding requests that are more than $50,000 are reviewed by the SEF Board of Directors. Each business unit manages a small community investment budget to support local initiatives. Positive and productive community relations are the responsibility of every Suncor employee. Each business unit has stakeholder relations staff that work directly with our local stakeholders. Suncor also has a cross-company stakeholder relations team with corporate vice president support to integrate and consistently apply our policy, procedures, and tools across the company.
Key Strategies and Procedures for Implementation	SEF works closely with our local stakeholders and employees to understand a community's long-term needs and opportunities, then directs funding to initiatives that are likely to have a lasting benefit. Our stakeholder relations guide supports stakeholder relations practitioners and provides a consistent approach for each business unit.
Major Changes to Systems or Structures to Improve Performance	Suncor joined London Benchmarking Group (LBG) Canada, which provides us with a means of benchmarking ourselves against peer companies and assessing our performance. Our stakeholder relations function is currently undergoing a review to assess potential improvements to our strategic and functional abilities.
Training and Awareness	Employees are informed of our community interactions through our intranet site and our internal newsletter. For external stakeholders in our four main operating areas, we publish regular updates on our activities and performance called “In Your Community.” News releases are also posted on http://www.suncor.com/ and are sent to certain stakeholders. Our consultation office in Fort McMurray makes it easier for local stakeholders to directly communicate their questions and concerns to Suncor. We hold internal Aboriginal awareness training annually, and take Suncor staff to culture camps in neighbouring Aboriginal communities. We encourage our stakeholder relations team to take training to enhance their skills in the fields of risk communication, public participation, negotiation, mediation, and project management.
Monitoring and Follow-up	Every two years, we conduct a survey of our stakeholders and we work to address issues raised in the survey. SEF is a registered Canadian charity and is audited and prepares financial statements on an annual basis. As a member of LBG Canada we participate annually in the benchmarking process.
Goals and Performance	Suncor aims to contribute one percent of our domestic pre-tax profits to non-profit groups as defined by Imagine Canada. All performance data can be found at www.suncor.com/sustainability.
Key Successes and Shortcomings	Our support of First Nations community development has led to strong working relationships, which in turn has led to memoranda of understanding, Aboriginal business development, and project cooperation. We completed a $1 billion expansion at our Sarnia Refinery without any interruptions due to stakeholder concerns. The Imagine one percent target was not met in 2007 or 2008.