Sd3 have been retained on a three-year contract to help drive forward Rio Tinto's reporting strategy. This work is part of Rio Tinto's overall sustainability strategy which includes stakeholder relationships and partnership-building in order to improve social, environmental and financial performance.

Sd3 provided a comprehensive gap analysis for Rio Tinto, showing the company how its reporting measures up to the new Global Reporting Initiative G3 guidelines. This included a thorough review of environmental, economic, and social (labour, human rights, product responsibility and social issues) indicators.

Our pioneering work in the area of materiality has helped Rio Tinto to further embrace the concept. In sustainability reporting, something that is 'material' is at the threshold at which it becomes sufficiently important that it should be reported. For example, highly important issues will be discussed in the printed sustainability report and Annual Report, whilst moderately important issues will only be described in the on-line report. Issues that fall below the agreed threshold will be excluded as not sufficiently material for the report. These latter issues would still be managed (such as ozone depleters in fire equipment), just not reported. An appealing aspect to materiality is that it connects very clearly with the stakeholder inclusion work of a reporter. An unambiguous focus on the principles of inclusion and materiality (or relevance) in reporting are part of the touchstone of a new era of corporate sustainability reporting.

'At Sd3, we are excited to continue the report development work with Rio Tinto at a time when greater prioritisation of social and environmental impacts by businesses is central to creating leading sustainability reports'
Dan Holmes, Director, Sd3