Mining and Sustainable Development II - DTIE

Mining
Mining and sustainable development:
associations hold key to programme
of change
Anita Roper, WMC, on secondment to the Global Mining Initiative, London, UK.
Abstract
Industry associations and leading mining, minerals and metals companies are working hard
to advance elements of the industry’s sustainable development agenda. There has been
tremendous progress in awareness and implementation of sustainable development principles
in the last three years. Furthermore, in 2000 a number of companies within the industry started
a new, comprehensive programme called the Global Mining Initiative (GMI). This programme
brings together many of the largest mining minerals and metals companies in a
leadership exercise, to help ensure that in the new century the industry and others work together
to contribute to sustainable patterns of economic development. The industry’s associations
form a key part of the GMI. Producing a more effective global network for external representation
of the industry is one of the strategic challenges. The associations are the industry’s natural
vehicles to deliver the most effective follow-through and leverage for the outcomes of an
independent analysis of how the industry should contribute to sustainable development.
Résumé
Les associations professionnelles et les grandes entreprises d’exploitation minière, de traitement
des minéraux et de transformation des métaux déploient de gros efforts pour faire progresser
certains aspects du programme de ce secteur pour un développement durable. Et, de
fait, la sensibilisation aux principes du développement durable et leur mise en oeuvre a fait
d’énormes progrès ces trois dernières années. Plusieurs entreprises du secteur ont en outre
lancé en 2000 un nouveau programme de grande envergure, baptisé Global Mining Initiative
(GMI), qui associe la plupart des grandes entreprises d’exploitation minière et de métallurgie
aux entreprises d’autres secteurs pour qu’en ce nouveau siècle des modes de développement
économique durables soient adoptés. Les associations de ce secteur sont un des acteurs clé de
la GMI. Etablir un réseau mondial plus efficace pour représenter le secteur à l’extérieur est l’un
des défis stratégiques de cet engagement. Les associations professionnelles sont un véhicule
naturel pour donner suite à l'analyse des moyens à mettre en oeuvre pour contribuer à un
développement durable et en exploiter les conclusions de façon indépendante.
Resumen
Las asociaciones industriales y las principales industrias mineras y metalíferas están trabajando
sin descanso para presentar los elementos de la agenda de desarrollo sustentable de la
industria. En los últimos tres años se logró un progreso enorme en cuanto a conscientización
e implementación de principios sobre desarrollo sustentable. Además, en el año 2000 una
cantidad de empresas dentro de la industria comenzaron un nuevo programa intensivo
denominado “Global Mining Initiative” (Iniciativa Minera Global) que reúne a un importante
número de las principales empresas mineras y metalíferas en un trabajo para colaborar con los
patrones sustentables del desarrollo económico. Las asociaciones de la industria forman una
parte esencial de este programa. Uno de los desafíos estratégicos es crear una red global más
efectiva que represente externamente a la industria. Las asociaciones son las vías naturales
de la industria para el seguimiento efectivo y la adecuación de los resultados de los análisis
independientes respecto a la manera en que la industria debería contribuir al desarrollo sustentable.
Introduction
The mining industry world-wide is challenged
by its past practices, and more recently, by the
need to be better prepared for a different future.
Society’s expectations of the mining, minerals
and metals industry are that it should continue
to provide a vast range of essential economic
resources, reliably, at an affordable cost, and in a
manner that is careful of the environment and
produces benefit for communities.
The sector must respond to these changing
expectations and meet the challenge. Living successfully
with these higher expectations means
delivering a high level of performance consistently,
and being seen to be doing so. To achieve this,
sustainable development provides the best framework
within which to address issues such as environmental
performance, the fair distribution of
economic benefits, human rights and community
consultation, as well as product stewardship during
the metals life-cycle.
Three years ago, in the first thematic publication
on Mining and Sustainable Development,
George Miller, then President of the Mining Association
of Canada, described associations’ policies
and programmes regarding management
approaches to the improvement of environmental
performance. These included corporate
responsibility and codes of practice, voluntary targets
for emissions, public reporting on corporate
environmental performance, topical environmental
issues such as greenhouse gases and energy
use, as well as discharges to the marine environment,
transfrontier issues such as international
trade in wastes and other aspects of environmental
and social performance.
During the last three years there have been
many developments within the mining, minerals
and metals industry. There has been:
◆ greater concentration of companies within the
industry;
◆ a move to integrate environmental, social and
economic considerations into the way the industry
does business under the rubric of sustainable
development;
◆ the demand for and provision of increased
transparency of companies’ operations;
◆ greater involvement of those stakeholders who
have an interest in the industry; and
◆ the establishment of the Global Mining Initiative
(GMI) – a programme started by mining,
minerals and metals companies to respond positively
to society’s changing expectations.
This article discusses policies and programmes
by industry associations, in particular national
associations that have been put in place over the
last three years to respond to developments. There
has been much progress but it must be recognized
that the tasks are challenging and no one group
has all the answers. The article also touches on the
way associations are being called upon to help
move forward the sustainable development agenda
arising from the independent analytical work
of the Mining Minerals and Sustainable Development
(MMSD) project initiated by the GMI.
Specifically, the article describes:
◆ The integration by the associations of the three
pillars of sustainable development (economic,
environmental, social).
◆ The tools associations use to:
26 ◆ UNEP Industry and Environment – Special issue 2000