We’re now well into 2018 and it’s shaping up to be another exciting year. Before we look ahead, let’s take a moment to look back at what we achieved in 2017.
Commodity prices continued to rebound through 2017, which allowed us to achieve record revenues and cash flow from operations. We also made significant progress towards our 2020 sustainability goals and, most importantly, our safety performance was the best on record.
Achievements likes these are critical to the success of our company, and they are made possible by our people and an unwavering commitment to our values and to our objectives. That is why we have chosen “We Are Teck” as the theme for this issue of Connect as a way to highlight some of the important aspects that make us who we are as a company.
One of those aspects featured in this edition is our commitment to creating a more inclusive and diverse workforce. In “Laying the Foundation” we take a historical look at how the role of women in the mining industry and at Teck has evolved. And while there have been many positive advances in this area, it remains clear that there is more work to do. In “Advancing the Diversity Dialogue” we learn more about how an inclusive and diverse workforce can lead to improved health and safety performance, increased innovation and productivity, and better decision-making.
Another area we will be focused on advancing in 2018 is strengthening our culture of innovation. Finding new ideas to improve safety, sustainability and productivity will increasingly become an important part of maintaining our competitiveness and continuing to grow within our industry.
That spirit of innovation was at the heart of the Unearthed Hackathon, which Teck sponsored in Vancouver, B.C. this past October. In “Mining New Ideas at the Unearthed Hackathon” learn more about how the mining industry and technical experts worked together to help solve some of the challenges and opportunities facing our industry.
Our Excellence Awards program is another strong example of how we celebrate the outstanding innovations, achievements, and leadership of our employees in these and other areas. To learn more about this year’s recipients, please see the insert Recognizing Excellence.
And finally, as a result of the hard work of hundreds of employees across Teck, we were able to share in an important milestone earlier this year, as the Fort Hills oils sands project achieved first oil. In “Diversifying Teck’s Business: First Oil at Fort Hills” learn more about Fort Hills and the role one of our Excellence Awards winners – Carlos Opazo – had in this successful project.
Thank you to all the women and men featured in this issue of Connect, and to the thousands more throughout our company. Your commitment every day to living our values, to building our culture of innovation, and to creating a safe and inclusive work environment for everyone shines in these pages. It also defines who we are – and together, we are Teck.
Don Lindsay
President and CEO
