Anglo American: Credibility through 'virtual' transparency
Anglo American has, for almost 20 years, hosted an annual update on its sustainability performance to the investment community and their wider stakeholders across society.
In 2019, the company took transparency to the next level without the need to fly its audience around the world. The firm engaged Reality Check Systems to develop a 'virtual site visit'.
At Anglo American’s Minas-Rio operation in Brazil, two pipeline-leak incidents in March 2018 prompted the development and implementation of a Plan for the Recovery of the Degraded Areas to not only restore vegetation along the Santo Antônio do Grama creek, but also in areas affected by other land use and occupation activities as compensation measures.
In 2019, Anglo American commissioned Reality Check to build an immersive virtual tour of their Minas Rio site, pump-stations, and port facilities. This not only provided visibility of the results of their clean-up but also showcased the operational safety and efficiency of the asset to their shareholders and broader stakeholders including local and national government, communities, and NGO’s.
Reality Check contractor positioning a 360 degree camera for a shot
Making movies
The work was commissioned by Anglo American in London with filming undertaken by local Brazilian videographers using low cost 360° video cameras and a drone. Minimising logistical requirements and costs in this way, Anglo American were able, over the course of two days, to capture the critical points of their site and supporting infrastructure, and upload the material to the cloud. From this material, Reality Check were then able to create an immersive virtual site visit of the entire operation, including supporting satellite images of the locations as well as conventional photos, videos, and other data evidence from the company of their remedial work.
The investor and broader stakeholder experience
The virtual site tour was made available to the audience at Anglo American's Sustainability Performance Day in April 2019.
The Reality Check tour was available on large scale display screens at the event and also in VR headsets to transport the audience to the other side of the world. Via the Reality Check tour, investors and analysts could explore the site and supporting infrastructure for themselves thereby giving additional context to the narrative of the presentation.
The tour was later embedded as the landing page to the Anglo American website, where it stayed for a number of months freely accessible to public scrutiny.
In tour aerial 360 degree photo of Minas RioSatellite Image of Minas Rio Processing AreaCorporate explainer video playing inside 360 degree tour environment
