Xstrata Nickel empowers every employee and contractor to take a leadership r ole in safety . At Xstrata Nickel, delivering value to the Xstrata gr oup and its shar eholders is important, but so is cr eating a safe workplace, being a r esponsible community partner , and minimizing our envir onmental impact. These sustainable development goals ar e at the cor e of our practices. In every decision we make, we take a balanced appr oach to business that keeps us accountable to our employees, curr ent stakeholders, and futur e generations. Our top priority is the safety and well-being of our employees. Xstrata Nickel’ s policy of Zer o Har m empowers each and every employee and contractor to take a leadership r ole in safety . W e always strive to impr ove our safety perfor mance and eliminate critical incidents fr om our business. W ith this goal in mind, in 2012 we have set some of the most stringent safety tar gets in our company’ s history . W e ar e dedicated to working with our employees to further r educe the potential for injury and illness on the job. W e also strive to be a socially r esponsible leader in the communities in which we operate. Bringing economic opportunities, stability and infrastructur e to a r egion is part of it, but so is being an active, honest and engaged neighbour who gives back. Our cr eation of the Falcondo Foundation in the Dominican Republic, for example, led to the School Sponsorship Pr ogram in 1989. Thr ough the continuing ef forts of this pr ogram, we’ve pr ovided 129 schools with curriculum funding, supported nearly 2,000 teachers, and raised the education levels and opportunities of mor e than 77,000 childr en in the Dominican Republic. In addition to special pr ojects, we’r e committed to community excellence on a day-to-day level by working with employees, gover nments, private citizens, civic gr oups and media with transpar ency and integrity . Envir onmental sustainability is fundamental to Xstrata Nickel’ s long-ter m success and is inseparable fr om our business strategy and activities. Our mines and pr oduction facilities don’ t exist in bubbles – they’r e part of ecosystems of immeasurable value and intertwined with the communities our employees call home. This motivates us to hold ourselves to envir onmental standar ds that ar e even better than what’ s r equir ed by gover nment r egulations. Our initiatives include climate change and ener gy management, water conservation, minimizing our impact on the land and bio-diverse habitats, r educing our emissions, and r educing the amount of mining waste we generate and stor e.