What is the Social Way?

We are committed to delivering a lasting, positive contribution to host communities beyond the life of our operations. This starts with building trust and understanding the needs and priorities of the people and communities affected by our activities.

The Social Way is Anglo American's social performance management framework. It sets out how we engage with affected and interested stakeholders, avoid, prevent and mitigate adverse social impacts, and enhance the socio-economic development opportunities that come from our business.

Responsible social performance is fundamental to how we deliver our strategy. The Social Way provides a clear and flexible framework that enables our operations to respond to local context, develop trusted relationships with communities and make informed decisions that prioritise respect, minimise adverse impacts and foster mutual benefit.

Aligned with international standards and best practice, the Social Way sets out clear expectations for social performance across all Anglo American-managed sites.

Focused on what matters most

The Social Way is designed to support strategic, risk-based and value-adding social performance focused on local priorities and outcomes. Key features include:

• A new Social Way Standard defining clear minimum requirements and expected outcomes for social performance management.
• Flexibility for sites, allowing requirements to be implemented in ways that reflect local context, risks and priorities.
• A redesigned assurance process focused on risks, outcomes and continuous improvement.

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

The Social Way is publicly available. This enables stakeholders to understand our commitments, how we seek to conduct Social Performance, and what they can expect from us.

The Social Way Policy, Standard and Toolkit are also publicly available. The Social Way Assurance Process has been developed specifically for Anglo American-managed sites and is only available for our employees.