Why doing the right thing is good business
[Music]
[Applause]
i’ve always had a very
close personal connection to desert
country it’s
at a spiritual level and they are the
places where i feel
that my soul flies free
and it is in such a place here in
western australia
that we’re going to build the largest
green energy project in the world
resource scale and quality is everything
with six and a half thousand square
kilometers of land
drenched in sunshine delivering
two and a half thousand watts per square
meter
together with reliable nighttime wind
means that we can generate energy for 70
percent of the day
versus 40 which is available
from solar alone and
at 26 gigawatts
this is also going to be the largest
power project in the world
slightly larger than three gorges dam in
china
two and a half times the total
generation capacity
of western australia and 40 percent
of that of australia as a whole but
perhaps more meaningfully
it’s equivalent to the emissions from
15 million cars that’s 75
of all of the cars in australia or
it’s equivalent to the electricity
consumed
by about 12 million households and
that’s 40 percent
more households than in the whole of
australia
we’re going to use the energy that we
generate to electrolyze water
to produce hydrogen and then we’re going
to take the hydrogen
and we’re going to combine it with
nitrogen that we extract from the air
to produce 10 million tons a year
of ammonia which is about 12
times more than the next largest
ammonia export facility in the world
the size and scale of our resource
together with this ability to bottle the
energy
and send it anywhere in the world cost
competitively
means that we alongside others who are
doing the same
are creating a new industry sector
renewables at oil and gas scale
but all of this is a backdrop
to what i believe is the real game
changer
as pioneers we also have the ability
to look at how we do business
and we have the ability to set new
standards
in a part of the world where
long-term expeditionary business
practices
have resulted in a very decidedly
lackluster reputation for sustainable
business practice
and this for me is a continuation of a
20-year journey that i’ve been on
learning from experience in the
resources
energy and infrastructure sectors
how to do the right thing
and realize the full value that this
unlocks
and their few epiphanies here
most of us in business know what the
right things to do are
but we fail to make those things
standard business practice because
we bolt environmental and social
sustainability onto the side of our
businesses
rather than building them into the core
this is what has to change in business
it’s the only way to shift the needle
and it’s up to all of us to make that
happen
to do this you do have to give yourself
permission to think and do things
differently
it requires a different mindset
one of and not all
no compromises failure is not an option
not easy stuff and of course for
rigorous
management and resolute leadership
across all levels in the business
so that’s what we’re doing we’re
providing
equal weight to environmental and social
sustainability
alongside financial considerations
inside the governance systems of our new
business
from the top down starting with the
shareholder agreement
at this early design stage of the
project
it’s resulting in a very different
approach to stakeholders
as we realize
that all of our stakeholders are indeed
investors in one form or another
and as such need to be treated with
equity alongside
those who invest financially
so let me tell you a little bit more
about
three such main investors
the state of western australia first
nations people of australia
and the people who will work for us
it repositions all of them
as co-collaborators
together with us with common cause
with the state of western australia we
have a unique opportunity
to make the economy of the state more
resilient
by helping it to diversify significantly
as a result of that realization we
proactively
have set aside three gigawatts
of our generation for local use in the
pilbara
at very low prices which will lower
costs across the board
but probably even more significantly
it’s the easiest and fastest way for the
pilbara
to decarbonize away
and hold your breaths from the three to
five
billion liters a year of diesel that the
pilbara uses
and we’re working very closely with our
potential future suppliers
and the west australian and commonwealth
governments
to maximize local manufacturing
opportunities
whilst at the same time exploring the
spectrum
of downstream processing that the
project unlocks
from heavy industries like green steel
and aluminium
through the chemicals food and data
processing
our relationship with first nations
peoples
is central to everything we do
in advance of and above
any subsequent legal agreements
we have committed to a partnership
relationship with aboriginal people
based on the precepts of mutual
recognition mutual respect
mutual trust and mutual obligation
and our respect means that boss of
country talks directly
to boss of business
so we recognize and we deeply respect
the spiritual connection that
traditional owners have
with the land their social investment
into the natural world
and the investment of their culture and
heritage
that irrevocably underpins all of our
activities
we recognize that the land that the
project is situated on is theirs
now and forever
always was always will be
which results in a relationship with
them where they are the landowners and
we’re the tenants
and we will never do anything on their
land that they do not agree with
regardless of our rights under western
law
we will manage the environment guided by
traditional learners
and their ancient wisdom
and here’s the clincher
as an act of that resolute leadership i
spoke about earlier
we’re committed to a long-term
aspirational target
of a 100 aboriginal workforce for the
project
including everybody who does business
with us
and it extends beyond that
we will ensure that we design the
workplace so that we do not only employ
those who can work and are able to work
but are also able to employ deeply
deeply disadvantaged members
of the communities for instance those
who suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome
and what about our staff well
our relationship has to be more than
merely the exchange of labor
for money
our employees invest a portion of their
lives with us
so working with us
needs to result in a positive feedback
to their personal life’s journey
it’s well known that
the practices of fly and fly out
and driving drive out across the pilbara
result in significant personal and
public interest costs
as a result of poor mental health and
social dysfunction
whilst 12-hour shifts if any of you have
ever worked them
mitigate against building strong
communities
so for us there’s not going to be any
fly and fly out
there’ll be no driving drive out and
we’re going to work out our shifts
but how do we do that well
for the first time in some 30 years
we’re going to build a new town in
regional western australia
it’ll accommodate ultimately about 9 000
people
we’re using cutting-edge global best
practice
to design a place where people families
love to live and bring up their children
and where anybody who visits never wants
to leave
and the town with its abundant
low-cost energy and fresh water will be
built around a freshwater lake
it will employ closed loop green
technology
including aquaculture and horticulture
for local consumption and export
i told you it’s revolutionary i joined
this venture
when it became obvious to me that i was
going to be able to use
all of my life’s experience to help make
change
at this grand scale in the desert
country that i love
as i reflect on my own journey through
life
to this moment i’m reminded of my coming
of age
at 21 when my uncle sat me down
and gave me some advice that i’ve never
forgotten
three simple lines for me to analyze
deeply
and to aspire to
ride well shoot straight
and never tell a lie
it became my code
i’ve found it a really tough one to
follow
one tries one fails and at each juncture
one gets better
i continue to follow it today
it is why i’m here now
and it is why i’m so pleased
to be able to share all of this with you
thank you
you