Eminent panel to advise on system to assess sustainability and socio-political issues facing major energy and mining projects »
Critical Resource has established a senior advisory board to guide its LicenseSecure™ assessment system for natural resources projects. The board comprises:
• Lord (John) Browne - managing director at Riverstone, the private equity firm, and former group chief executive of BP.
• Bill Emmott - former editor of The Economist, and globally-respected commentator and consultant on international affairs
• Professor Paul Collier – professor of economics and director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University, and author of The Bottom Billion.
Critical Resource is an advisory firm specialising in sustainability and stakeholder issues, with a particular focus on the natural resources industries. The firm has developed LicenseSecure, a system for assessing the “health of the socio-political license to operate” for resource projects. This aims to facilitate far-sighted, responsible management of sustainability and stakeholder issues around such projects and is designed as a decision tool for senior executives of companies and major investors. The advisory board will provide high-level guidance to the development of LicenseSecure.
Critical Resource’s aim is to assist clients to meet their business goals by managing these issues in a strategic, far-sighted and responsible way. Critical Resource is also a source of independent analysis and comment in this area.
A particular focus of expertise is the natural resources sector, including energy and mining, where such issues are often critical to business success. The team brings together broad experience from BP, Rio Tinto, McKinsey, The Economist, the OECD, Chatham House and elsewhere.
The LicenseSecure methodology provides a summary view based on a rating from AAA to D. This is assessed using a comprehensive and carefully designed set of criteria, and backed up by a detailed assessment to guide management or investor response.
For companies, the assessment provides authoritative due diligence and a succinct, comprehensive overview of the ‘socio-political license to operate’, allowing strategic monitoring and response to risks and opportunities facing the project. For investors, a LicenseSecure rating can help reveal price-sensitive information not covered by standard valuation models, and signals in advance where projects face socio-political threats to value or reputation.
The role of the board is to provide input to the team on major, emerging socio-political trends to inform the development of LicenseSecure™ and also refinements of the methodology. Initial guidance in this respect will be provided during 2009. Excluded from the board’s role is providing guidance on the ratings of individual projects, and overseeing the day-to-day running of Critical Resource.
During his time at BP, Lord Browne was credited with its transformation into one of the most successful global energy firms. He also adopted far-sighted, and industry-leading, approaches to climate change and other corporate responsibility issues.
Emmott is author of Rivals: How the power struggle between China, India and Japan will shape our next decade. During his editorship of The Economist, from 1993 to 2006, its circulation more than doubled to almost 1.1 million worldwide.
Professor Collier is one of the world’s leading experts on African and resource-rich economies. He was formerly Director of the Development Research Group at the World Bank.
