Mining & Social Development Goals: "huge potential, limited action", says report

A new report released by the Responsible Mining Foundation, "Mining and the SDG’s – a 2020 status update" has shown that, with just ten years left to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the mining sector - which has links to all 17 of those goals - is falling short.

While many of the largest mining companies in the world are mentioning the SDGs in their sustainability reports, and some have begun integrating the goals into the business strategies, the report describes most SDG reporting by mining firms to be "purely cosmetic", and highlights the dearth of public reporting of the negative impacts caused by the sector in general.

The report, which was jointly published by the RMF and the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, also described that in the search for evidence of companies taking practical actions to deliver the goals, the results are mixed.

"The vast majority of the companies show no evidence of integrating the Goals into their business strategy or corporate governance," said the report.

The study's findings were based on the RMF's RMI report 2020, which looked at the practices and policies of 38 large-scale mining companies worldwide. 

It found that while progress had been made in relation to two goals in particular - SDG 4 (Quality Education) and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) - no one company had taken firm action to address them all.

The mining sector had been particularly weak in taking action on four SDGs in particular - SDG 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) and SDG 14 (Life Below Water).

The RMF said that there had been "multiple and striking mismatches between companies’ rhetoric and action". The report found, for example, that SDG 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing) and SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) are two of the goals that many firms claim to be prioritising, yet accounted for some of the weakest levels of action.

In a statement, the RMF said: "Working towards the SDGs is about more than doing the right thing: there is a strong and well-established business case for companies to integrate the goals into their business strategies. As the report states, mining companies that embed the SDGs into their core operations will strengthen their ability to meet future challenges – and will build trust among all stakeholders, including an investment community increasingly concerned about sustainability matters."

The report concluded by outlining nine practical steps that companies can take to demonstrate their commitment to meeting the SDGs and to responsible mining in general.

• Demonstrate responsible mining as the business model.
• Raise the status of sustainability in the hierarchy. 
• Resource sustainability departments. 
• Show courageous leadership and attract aspirational talent.
• Integrate the SDGs into existing work on economic, environmental, social and governance issues. 
• Leverage the SDG target and indicator framework to set progressive measurable targets for SDG action.
• Apply SDG-supportive practices consistently across the company.
• Disclose public interest data points on SDG-linked activities.
• Use the momentum of the SDG Decade of Action to enable transformative change for society, for future generations, and for the mining industry.

With ten years to go and sluggish movement towards the UN SDGs, the report concludes that most mining companies still have considerable room for improvement.

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