Management accountablility
Beech buttresses
The CRI reforms transferred significant accountability for investing in science and innovation to CRI Boards. Landcare Research has approx $24 million of government money in a Core Funding Agreement from MBIE; and the Landcare Research Board is accountable to shareholding Ministers for the impacts and value achieved from investing this money in our science and innovation. This Core funding equates to approximately 40% of our total revenue.
The Board also has the option of deciding to reinvest operating surplus (strategic investment) in specific initiatives that support our National Outcomes, are strategically aligned to our Core Purpose, and will create national benefit. High value initiatives mostly consist of science infrastructure but may include significant, cutting–edge research projects.The Board is charged by the shareholding Ministers to take strategic advice from senior, independent scientists and key stakeholder partners.
While the Chief Executive and Senior Managers have responsibility for managing the company’s research and operations, much of the day–to–day operational administration and functional planning is devolved to Portfolio and Team Leaders. All staff are expected to demonstrate appropriate levels of personal repsonsibility.
We have comprehensive management policies, monitoring systems and guidelines that cover all aspects of our environmental impacts, ethical behaviour, good employer and social responsibilities available to all staff via our intranet. They are reviewed and up–dated regularly. We have not reported on these here and only consider these to be material in that they support our retention of ISO 14001 certification and maintaining our Tertiary Level performance under the Accident Compensation Commission (ACC)’s Workplace Safety Management Practices programme.
Landcare Research identifies key risks and proactively mitigates them through strategies and activities to minimise potential harm. These are reported to our shareholding Ministers but are not public. Our risk management framework includes strategic, financial, operational, and legal and compliance risks. As a Crown research institute we face the usual business risks of loss of key person or customer contract, financial targets not being met and loss of facilities or equipment. However, we also face specific strategic risks that are unique to Landcare Research.
We must also comply with a wide range of environmental and good employer legislation. Instances of non–compliance are reported along with the remedial actions taken to ensure future incidents are avoided.
Our Sustainability Policy and Guiding Philosophy are on our website.