Developing a framework for sustainable development indicators for the mining and minerals Industry
The mining and minerals industry faces some of the most difficult sustainability challenges of any industrial sector. To secure its continued ‘social licence’ to operate, the industry must respond to these challenges by engaging its many different stakeholders and addressing their sustainability concerns. The industry must also be able to measure and assess its sustainability performance and to demonstrate continuous improvements over long term. The mining and minerals sector has already started responding to some of the sustainability challenges, as demonstrated by the Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development (MMSD) project. Following the findings of MMSD, this paper aims to contribute to these activities at the sectoral level through a development of a framework for sustainability indicators as a tool for performance assessment and improvements. The indicators have been developed specifically for metallic, construction and industrial minerals, but may also be suitable for some energy minerals, particularly coal. The framework comprises economic, environmental, social and integrated indicators, which can be used both internally, for identification of ‘hot spots’ and externally, for sustainability reporting and stakeholder engagement. In an attempt to help standardise corporate reports and enable cross-comparisons, the framework is compatible with the general indicators proposed by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI); however, a number of sector-specific indicators have also been developed to reflect the characteristics of the industry.
Tools and concepts for sustainable development, how do they relate to a general framework for sustainable development, and to each other?
We present a general framework to plan for sustainability and then relate it to some well-known tools for sustainable development. This framework follows from principles for how a system is constituted (ecological and social principles), and contains principles for a favorable outcome for the system (sustainability), as well as principles for the process to reach this outcome (sustainable development). The principles for sustainability define the favorable outcome and direct problem-solving upstream towards problemsources. A program of activities is then constructed by backcasting from defined outcomes to the current problems. This is followed by “metrics”, i.e. various concepts for measuring and monitoring the activities. Most concepts and tools for sustainable development function as metrics, for instance life cycle assessment (LCA), ecological footprinting (EF), and Factor X. An environmental management system (EMS), like ISO 14001 or EMAS, is an administrative vehicle that should systematically align a firm's specific outcomes, activities and metrics with a general framework for sustainability. From a strategic point of view, metrics should measure alignment of activities with the principles contained in a framework for sustainability. A framework is not an alternative to concepts and tools for metrics. We need them all, because they represent different interrelated levels of strategic planning.
Business Models for Sustainability
While a consensus appears to have evolved among many sustainability researchers and practitioners that sustainable development at the societal level is not very likely without the sustainable development of organizations, the business model as a key initiating component of corporate sustainability has only recently moved into the focus of sustainability management research. Apparently, the usual approaches to sustainable development of philanthropy, corporate social responsibility, and technological process and product innovation are insufficient to create the necessary radical transformation of organizations, industries, and societies toward genuine, substantive sustainable development. More in-depth research is needed on whether both modified and completely new business models can help develop integrative and competitive solutions by either radically reducing negative and/or creating positive external effects for the natural environment and society (cf. Boons & Lüdeke-Freund, 2013; Hansen, Große-Dunker, & Reichwald, 2009; Schaltegger, Lüdeke-Freund, & Hansen, 2012; Stubbs & Cocklin, 2008). One of the first articles in this field was published in Organization & Environment. The Stubbs and Cocklin (2008) article titled “Conceptualizing a ‘Sustainability Business Model” was a seminal study published a few years before the currently emerging wave of academic business model publications. The Stubbs and Cocklin study revealed a set of normative principles of organizational development that together form an “ideal type” of sustainability-oriented business model. These authors pioneered the field of case-based theory building for sustainability-oriented business models, using Interface Inc. and Bendigo Bank as examples of sustainability-driven organizations. Their ideal type comprised different structural and cultural attributes of an organization, such as developing community spirit, investing in employees’ trust and loyalty, and engaging in sustainability assessment and reporting. They also advanced propositions about sustainabilityoriented business models dealing with an organization’s purpose and goals, its performance measurement approach, the need to consider all stakeholders, how nature should be treated, whether the organization’s leaders drive the necessary cultural and structural changes to implement sustainability, and whether a systems-level, as well as a firm-level, perspective should be employed.
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