During a 14-year career at BHP, Carolina Alarcón, General Manager Integrated Operations Spence, has seen plenty of change. Not just in the way we work but also how we think about our impact.

In her role at Spence in northern Chile, Carolina and her team oversee integrated planning, operations and engineering as well as logistics and improvement – all areas where decisions, big and small, affect those around us.

Across BHP, we have become more disciplined in considering how these decisions can create both financial value and social value – our positive contribution to society.

“There has been a huge change in our social value approach during my time at BHP,” Carolina said. “The emphasis has changed the way I relate to inclusion and diversity as well as respect for our communities and the environment.”

In our industry, the work we do requires careful planning and our approach to social value is no different. In order to deliver meaningful and mutually beneficial outcomes for our people, partners and the communities we’re part of, we take deliberate and considered action.

It's something that Carolina lives and breathes in her role, empowering her team to challenge the status quo and providing the space to pause and reflect on how we plan for projects and initiatives.

“Social value is considered as part of all our planning processes – Life of Asset, 5-Year Plan and budgets,” Carolina said. “That influences our scorecards, priorities and KPIs - giving focus and a sense of ownership to everything we do.”

“We know it's not perfect just yet but we try to get better with every planning cycle,” Carolina concluded.

Find out more about our social value approach at: bhp.com/socialvalue