Community

Environmental and social responsibility management

MIG is managed within the Macquarie Capital Funds division of Macquarie Group. Macquarie Group has made a statement about corporate citizenship in respect of all its business activities, which can be found on its website here.

MIG considers that social, environmental and economic benefits arise from responsible private-sector investment in the construction, development and operation of high-quality infrastructure. Such infrastructure underpins much social and economic development – it helps people to travel, trade and communicate and it facilitates improvements to the quality of their lives through the provision of essential services.

Many new infrastructure projects undergo extensive social and environmental impact reviews before being given approval to proceed. The process is typically run by governments, which will have balanced the costs and benefits of the project. Accordingly, a government-run process will usually require new infrastructure to produce more efficient environmental outcomes than existing alternative infrastructure; or, where an investment is made in existing infrastructure, for that Investment to produce improved environmental outcomes than existed prior to the investment being approved.

Consequently, and as a fundamental part of how investment in infrastructure comes about, MIG is aware of the potential for there to be environmental and social risks as well as significant benefits. These risks may include pollution, including carbon emissions. MIG is conscious that its  investments therefore create environmental and social responsibilities as a result of the essential services provided by those assets.

Against this awareness of risk and responsibilities, there are relevant practical and structural factors which must be acknowledged when determining what steps can be taken to address environmental and social responsibilities. MIG holds and manages an investment stake on behalf of its investors in the underlying asset. The majority of the social and environmental footprint of MIG's investments are therefore at the asset level and are dealt with by each asset's management, who are separate from Macquarie and those Macquarie management company staff who administer the fund and monitor the assets through board representation and regular asset reporting.

Accordingly, MIG approaches its environmental and social responsibilities through an overarching risk management framework governing its investments. Key within that framework is MIG's board environmental policy. In essence, this policy recognises that it is the responsibility of each asset to comply with relevant laws and regulations. In addition, the framework requires that, to the maximum extent possible depending on MIG's degree of control over the asset, each asset complies with the regulatory framework and minimum standards of the jurisdiction within which that asset operates, and with any additional requirements imposed by governments or other relevant authorities as part of the process of approving the investment. As MIG's assets are in OECD or OECD-like nations, these standards are regulatory and other requirements are rigorous.

In addition, MIG's environmental and social responsibilities are identified and acknowledged through the investment process, as follows:

• Asset selection – social and environmental obligations are identified as part of the acquisition process
• Ongoing asset management – compliance with environmental requirements is monitored and potential social and environmental issues are identified
• Stakeholder reporting – policies, social and environmental initiatives and compliance performance are reported internally and, where appropriate and/or required, externally.

Environmental and social responsibility-related regulatory requirements

MIG is not aware of any material breaches of relevant environmental or social responsibility-related regulatory standards by its assets during the year ended 30 June 2007.

Environmental and social responsibility-related initiatives at MIG assets during FY2007

Examples of notable environmental and social responsibility-related initiatives undertaken during the past financial year at assets in which MIG invests include:

Drive for Charity
Delivering value to communities in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia

Drive for Charity is an initiative where, each year on certain roads, a day's toll proceeds are collected and distributed to charitable and not-for-profit organisations that provide assistance and services to the communities in which the roads operate. A strong sense of goodwill has developed around the initiative, with drivers often donating more money than the normal toll, and the motorways' staff joining in to raise money for the worthy causes.

This year MIG was proud to support Drive for Charity on the M6 Toll in the UK and on the Dulles Greenway in the US.

United States – 23 May 2007

In the second year that the Dulles Greenway has participated in the annual Drive for Charity event more than US$182,000 was donated to six local organisations, including a US$18,000 scholarship program with the local high schools. Details of the other five recipients follow. To date, more than US$360,000 has been raised through the Greenway. Each organisation has detailed for the Greenway management team how the monies received helped to make a significant positive impact on its chosen cause.

The March of Dimes

The mission of the March of Dimes is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects. Drive for Charity proceeds have helped them to make a commitment to INOVA Fairfax Hospital for funding a Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Family Support initiative, the first in Virginia. March of Dimes NICU Family Support was launched in 2001 to provide information and support to families while their children are hospitalised in the NICU and during their transition back home.

This project maintains a part-time NICU Family Support Specialist who liaises between families and staff; a volunteer parent-professional action committee which guides program selection, development and implementation; a database of volunteers providing support and comfort; a Parent Care Kit for every NICU family and additional programs including bereavement support and support for non-English speaking NICU families.

Special Olympics – Loudoun Chapter

The Loudoun Chapter of the Special Olympics provides opportunities for local athletes with intellectual disabilities to participate in weekly practices and tournaments. The Drive for Charity contribution enabled the Chapter to develop a fundraising brochure describing the Chapter's local program and to lease a storage facility for equipment and uniforms for local athletes.

Loudoun Abused Women's Shelter

The shelter provides emergency accommodation, food and emotional support to women and their children escaping domestic violence and abuse. With the help of the donation, the shelter was able to repair its facilities as well as provide emergency medical care for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse.

Fresh Air/Full Care

Fresh Air/Full Care provides funding for summer camps for at-risk youth. It used the Drive for Charity donation to assist in securing a matching funds grant from the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, doubling its funding to provide a summer camp for local at-risk youth. Funding allowed over 50 young people to have a place to spend the summer, out of harm's way.

Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy

The Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy promotes the preservation and proliferation of healthy wildlife habitats. The Conservancy used the funds raised to initiate an internship program and printed a booklet to provide area homeowners with a guide to the native plants they could use in rebuilding or augmenting backyard habitats, as well as a colouring book for children to provide information about local species of plants and animals. Funds were also used in the annual local butterfly species count. Finally, the group was able to partner with other local environmental groups to spearhead an Environmental Education Conference, bringing together local teachers and environmental organisations to identify and coordinate educational programs for local young people.

United Kingdom – 23 May 2007 

Drive for Charity was held for the third time on the M6 Toll in the UK. To date, more than £422,000 has been raised and distributed to worthy causes, including a £30,000 donation in 2007 to the M6 Toll's regional Air Ambulance. The other causes selected have also detailed how Drive for Charity donations assisted them in their work.

National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC)

The NSPCC is the UK's leading charity specialising in child protection and the prevention of cruelty to children. Its work in the Midlands includes the Time Out Young People's Centre in Chelmsley Wood and the Staffordshire Children's Advice and Representative Service, which helps children and young people growing up in the care of the local authority. The donations received by the NSPCC from Drive for Charity have been some of the largest the area has seen in the past three years and have provided invaluable support to projects such as the Time Out Centres throughout the region.

Staffordshire and Warwickshire Wildlife Trusts

Staffordshire Wildlife Trust has three key areas of activity that have benefited from Drive for Charity proceeds; conservation, community and education programs, and maintaining over 30 reserves covering 2000 acres of ancient woodland, wildflower meadows, marshland and moorland – home to some of the region's most threatened species.

The Warwickshire Wildlife Trust has used its Drive for Charity proceeds for its Tame Valley Wetland Project, which aims to maintain, improve and create wildlife habitats in North Warwickshire to support threatened species such as water vole, otter and snipe.

Marie Curie Cancer Care

Marie Curie Cancer Care has told M6 Toll management that the Drive for Charity donation is one of the largest seen in the Midlands and will be used to support Marie Curie nursing of hundreds of terminally ill cancer patients, in their own homes, in Birmingham, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Sutton Coldfield and across the region. The M6 Toll cuts through three main Primary Care Trusts with which Marie Curie Cancer Care has contracts to deliver community-based nursing.

Drive for Charity is not the only charitable cause supported by MIG roads. In February 2007, management and employees of the 407 ETR in Toronto, Canada, announced a donation of C$59,887 to United Way in the York region. The donation, which saw management matching funds raised by employees, will be used to support United Way's work in addressing affordable housing and homelessness, domestic violence and abuse, literacy, mental health and the issues faced by newcomers and immigrants.

Australia - 22 May 2007

As discussed elsewhere in this report, during the financial year MIG divested its mature toll roads in Sydney, Australia – the Eastern Distributor, M4 and M5 – into the separately listed Sydney Roads Group (SRG). MIG would like to note in appreciation that SRG management continued the Drive for Charity commitment, which has run in Australia for five years. On 22 May 2007 SRG roads raised A$840,441, bringing the total raised and distributed to worthwhile organisations across the six years of Drive for Charity's existence to nearly A$4.5 million.

More MIG roads contributing to their communities, serving customers

South Bay Expressway

The biological mitigation program for the South Bay Expressway (SBX) in San Diego County in the US has received two separate awards from state and federal bodies. In April 2007, the US Department of Transport's Federal Highway Administration named the mitigation program as an Exemplary Ecosystem Initiative – one of only 20 ecosystem initiatives chosen across the US. The SBX traverses sensitive habitat for federal and state listed threatened and endangered species in San Diego County and the mitigation program involves offsite and onsite habitat restoration, protection of threatened and endangered species, environmental education training programs, compliance reporting, protection of water quality during and post construction, and coordination with the public and agencies to ensure that the design and construction activities are completed as agreed upon in the project planning phase.

In February 2007, the California Transportation Foundation bestowed on the SBX its Environmental Enhancement Project of the Year award.

As well, in October 2006 SBX was also recognised by the South County Economic Development Council with its Pioneer Award, for businesses or individuals making an outstanding contribution to the economic development, and community and environmental welfare, of the South San Diego County region.

Westlink M7

The transportation, economic development and sponsorship activity of Westlink Motorway Limited, the operator of Westlink M7, earned the road a Blacktown City Council Corporate Citizen of the Year Award in November 2006. The award cited Westlink Motorway's contribution to the current and future economic development of Blacktown City, the Westlink M7 Cities Marathon and enabling Blacktown City Council to host the Sydney Symphony Orchestra for the first time in the council's 75-year history.