Develop resources and foster collaboration on operationalizing sustainability, which refers to the process of making sustainability practical, implemented, measurable, technically applied, and integrated throughout operations.
INDUSTRY NEED
The topic of sustainability is a particular challenge within mining due to the cyclical nature of the industry, high equipment costs, lack of clear implementation case studies, perceptions of risk, and reluctance to fund innovation and short payback periods. As regulators and governments also become more aware of environmental and sustainability issues, minimizing our impact will become an important factor in our social license to operate and protecting our future. Strong sustainability practices also have the potential to reduce long-term costs and will help build a positive image for the industry as a whole.
Many companies have committed to significant sustainability goals (e.g., “net-zero by 2050”) and many initiatives exist already that cover policy, advocacy, corporate social responsibility, and corporate strategy. However, steps also need to be taken now in daily operations to meet long-term goals, and the industry has identified a need to collaboratively address the ways in which sustainability can be operationalized now and in the near future.
ABOUT THE WORKING GROUP
This Working Group aims to develop resources and foster collaboration on operationalizing sustainability, which refers to the process of making sustainability practical, implemented, measurable, technically applied, and integrated throughout operations. This group will focus on addressing a range of topics with a focus on best practices, guidance, strategies, and tools to enable incremental and short-term practical changes that will help to create more sustainable operations.
KEY TOPICS
Some key topics discussed by the group include:
- Decarbonization and greenhouse gas reduction
- Technology enablement and data management
- Tailings, waste, and water management
- Community and social acceptability
- Circular economy
- Changing skills requirements, change management, and training and education
- Biodiversity
WORKSHOP OUTCOMES
PROJECTS & INITIATIVES IN THE PIPELINE
Operationalizing Sustainability Framework
There are already many existing sustainability frameworks developed by stakeholders across all areas of the mining community, many of which overlap. Across the frameworks, there is diversity in topics addressed, with each framework including different ways to assess how key performance indicators are measured. It isn’t clear what many of the gaps or common challenges are amongst the existing frameworks, or how this working group could be best positioned to address such topics.
This activity aims to collect existing frameworks to determine commonalities, gaps, and common challenges across the mining community, which will then lead to a clearer sense of what the focus and scope of this working group should be. The workflow will be as follows:
- Collect existing frameworks
- Review commonalities
- Gather member input on priorities
- Define the scope of the working group
Operationalizing Net Zero Guideline Suite
The objective is to develop a suite of guidelines to leverage efforts across the global mining industry towards embedding new practices and technologies in our operations to meet zero emissions targets. Some of the different guidelines proposed include:
- Battery Lifecycles
- Choice of Source
- Holistic Energy Management Across the Site
- Integration with Community
- Recycling
- Tracking and Reporting
Holistic Energy Management Across the Site
This project is the first of the Operationalizing Net-Zero Guidelines Suite. The objective of this project is to develop a guideline taking a holistic approach and looking at all the different aspects of the mine and identifying energy management strategies. The development of the guideline will be a collaborative effort to guide the industry on energy management considerations and how it can support sustainability efforts.
Learn more on the project here.
