What is the Social Way 3.0?

The Social Way is key to us achieving our Purpose to re-imagine mining to help improve people’s lives.

Through the Social Way we have been able to ensure that policies and systems are in place in all Anglo American managed sites to support effective engagement with affected communities, avoid or minimise adverse social impacts, and maximise development opportunities. We were the first mining company to adopt this kind of approach. We first launched the Social Way in 2003 with the launch of SEAT, followed by the Social Way policy in 2009, and it has been updated several times since then, gaining us a reputation as a leader in social performance in our industry.

After an in-depth review, we have revised the Social Way once again to take account of internal changes, such as the launch of our Purpose and Sustainable Mining Plan, and to keep pace with evolving international best practice and standards.

How does it differ from earlier versions?

Formerly known as the Socio-Economic Assessment Toolbox (SEAT), the Social Way 3.0 marks a step change: it introduces our new integrated Social Way Management System, comprising a policy, toolkit and assurance framework. We are working to embed social performance into our core business processes, and so this version is far more Anglo-American specific.

Is the Social Way 3.0 just for Anglo American, or can other organisations use it?

As with previous versions of the Social Way and SEAT, the policy and toolkit are available externally. The Assurance Framework has been drafted specifically for Anglo American sites and is only available to Anglo American and De Beers Group employees.

Because SEAT contains some generic tools that external organisations may find useful, it's still available on the Anglo American website.