Today, future-forward architecture, design and construction organisations place people and communities at the heart of their agenda.

BlueScope, as Australia’s largest steel manufacturer, has long understood the responsibility entailed with being a major community employer and partner.

Creating strong communities is one of five pillars that underpin BlueScope's approach to driving sustainable outcomes. The other four pillars underpinning BlueScope’s approach to Sustainability are creating safe and inclusive workplaces, responsible products and supply chains, climate change action, and building a sustainable and enduring business.

BlueScope’s ‘Strengthening our Communities’ investment framework informs the community activities and agencies that BlueScope supports or invests in and acknowledges the unique value of local communities. Through this framework, BlueScope seeks to understand and work constructively with local communities through active partnership, mutual respect, and long-term commitment.

Reflective of this commitment are two important initiatives: the First Nations Framework and the Jawun Indigenous Partnership, both designed to foster respectful, and enduring relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

The First Nations Framework

Developed over a period of 18 months, BlueScope’s First Nations Framework sets out the organisation’s key focus areas for First Nations engagement. Its key tenet is one of co-designing initiatives which aim to grow the representation and empowerment of First Nations People within BlueScope’s business, supply chains and communities.

“The Framework sets out BlueScope’s approach to engagement with First Nations communities, which at its very core, starts by taking the time to listen carefully. The time taken to build a meaningful dialogue and relationship with these communities helps to form a deeper understanding and connection with their needs. With time and careful dialogue, initiatives that best address that community’s needs are co-created,” explains Anna Di Giorgio, the Organisational Development Manager at BlueScope.

“Strengthening our communities is fundamental for sustainability which translates into tangible employment and training opportunities, for Indigenous businesses to grow and develop alongside BlueScope,” adds Anna.

The Jawun Indigenous Partnership

BlueScope’s participation in the Jawun Indigenous Partnership fuses the company’s focus on First Nations and Indigenous communities, with its commitment to nurture respectful and enduring relationships.

Jawun is a not-for-profit organisation that connects corporates and their employees with Indigenous organisations around Australia, with the aim of fostering better understanding of First Nations People’s experience. “BlueScope became a member of this partnership in 2017, and we have had over 30 employees participate in six-week long secondments across Central Australia since,” Anna describes. “They have been incredibly well-received by those communities and organisations.”

Margaux Bonne, a Specification Manager at BlueScope, recently completed a six-week virtual secondment in Kununurra, WA. This secondment marked the company’s first placement in this region.

Margaux assisted an Aboriginal not-for-profit called the Wunan Foundation with the specification process for the Gananoorang Lakeside Resort Development project. The project was acquired by the Wunan Foundation as a social enterprise designed to increase training and employment opportunities in the region as well as providing income generation for the Foundation.

Margaux admits that the placement had been life-changing, leading her to re-evaluate some of the preconceptions she had held – which is why she thinks initiatives like this are so important. “People often have preconceptions about the needs of our First Nations Peoples,” she says passionately. “My experience has been that what you think is required is often not what they need at all.  When talking to the local community at Kununurra they were able to share how their culture shapes them.”

As part of the project, Margaux and one of the Wunan Foundation’s project managers visited a light gauge steel fabricator in NSW to determine if this manufacturing capability could be set-up in Kununurra, which would create long-term employment opportunities and an income stream for the local community.

With the aim of providing opportunities for the local youth, she also collaborated on business initiatives that celebrated the arts, and design of the region, and showcased local culture through education and entertainment programs.

Margaux has been incredibly inspired by her participation in the programme. “Our First Nations people are our soul,” she says. “They are the foundation of Australia. I believe the Jawun program provided an opportunity to make a powerful and practical contribution towards reconciliation.”

The First Nations Framework and the Jawun Indigenous Partnership aptly reflect BlueScope’s commitment to fostering respectful and meaningful relationships with Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. These two initiatives demonstrate the company’s belief that prioritising people as part of its agenda is a critical foundation for driving a sustainable future.

 

Image caption: BlueScope employee during Jawun secondment to central Australia