Mining matters to a better future
Mitchell H Hooke says Australia's mineral industry has identified strong CSR as essential to success - and stands ready to apply those lessons in an Asian context
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| Hooke: Industry fundamentals are set around CSR |
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 A new paradigm of community engagement has taken hold in Australia – from a tradition of deciding, announcing and defending to an approach based on engaging, listening and learning
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Much of the success of the Australian minerals industry has been founded on its strong, practical commitment to corporate social responsibility. The Australian industry has shifted its focus from dealing largely with immediate impacts on local communities towards the building of sustainable regional communities through long-term partnerships.
A new paradigm of community engagement has taken hold in Australia – from a tradition of deciding, announcing and defending to an approach based on engaging, listening and learning.
The Australian industry recognises that corporate social responsibility is not an adjunct to its business, it is its business.
Core function
The industry’s core function is to convert natural endowment to societal capital, and that can only be achieved sustainably when there are real mutually beneficial considerations of the safety and health of its workforce, the environment, host communities, and the rights and interests of Indigenous peoples.
In this context, the industry knows it has a duty to ensure the benefits of natural resource development accrue to communities and the nation across generations, beyond the life of mine.
In practice, the Australian industry’s commitment to sustainable development in the recent past has included:
• More than $1.2 billion to reduce the sector’s carbon footprint;
• An unshakeable commitment to zero workplace fatalities and injuries;
• Annual expenditure in excess of $200 million for community-development programmes;
• A Memorandum of Understanding with the Australian Government on Indigenous Employment and Enterprise Development;
• Programmes to lift literacy and numeracy and employment prospects for remote Indigenous people;
• New energy efficiency targets to reduce carbon emissions;
• Reduced fresh water consumption through recycling and re-use;
• Rehabilitated mined land and regenerated biodiversity;
• Human rights training for employees and contractors; and
• Maximised economic outcomes for host communities through local procurement and employment policies.
The Australian industry understands that mining operations will be supported if they are making a positive contribution to society, but this support is neither automatic nor unconditional. There is the need to gain and maintain the support of communities – to have a valid social license to operate.
The Australian minerals industry regards its social licence to operate as important as its access to natural resources.
To give practical effect to the industry’s commitment to sustainable development, the Minerals Council of Australia developed Enduring Value - the Australian Minerals Industry Framework for Sustainable Development.
Enduring Value represents the industry’s collective commitment to maximising its contribution to sustainable development and to operating in a manner that is attuned to the expectations of the communities in which it operates.
Enduring Value – the Australian Minerals Industry Framework for Sustainable Development:
• Aligns with global industry initiatives, and in particular provides critical guidance on the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) Sustainable Development Framework Principles and their application at the operational level;
• Builds on the Australian Minerals Industry Code for Environmental Management - the platform for industry’s continual improvement in managing environmental issues;
• Provides a vehicle for industry differentiation and leadership, building reputational capital with the community, government and the finance and insurance sectors; and
• Assists the industry to operate in a manner which is attuned to the expectations of the community, and which seeks to maximise the long-term benefits to society that can be achieved through the effective management of Australia’s natural resources.
Commitment to the Enduring Value framework brings with it a number of obligations. In summary, these are:
• Progressive implementation of the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) Principles and Elements;
• Public reporting of site level performance, on a minimum annual basis, with reporting metrics self-selected from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the GRI Mining and Metals Sector Supplement or self-developed; and
• Assessment of the systems used to manage key operational risks (using either internal or external assessment as appropriate).
Enduring Value and the industry’s on-the-ground commitment to sustainable development have helped position the Australian minerals industry as a world leader in corporate social responsibility.
Through the Minerals Council of Australia, Australia’s mining industry stands ready to share its expertise and knowledge with the rest of Asia.
Mitchell H Hooke is CEO of the Minerals Council of Australia
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