83%
of water reused and recycled
100%
of operational sites certified to ISO 14001 standards
Biodiversity Action Plans
at all operational sites to achieve net neutral impact
Net Zero
goal of net zero emissions by 2050
"We are committed to managing our impacts on the natural environment, both today and with future generations in mind. We take a pragmatic approach and recognize that attempts to tackle climate, biodiversity loss or water use must go hand-in-hand with efforts to foster thriving local economies and positive community relations."
— Grant Beringer, Group Sustainability Executive
Responsible environmental stewards
Our operations rely on a steady and secure supply of water and energy to operate efficiently. Our operating environments are also underpinned by the natural world and require a healthy and functioning ecosystem. The sixth
assessment report from the IPCC indicates that climate change is widespread, rapid and intensifying, and predicts that, without drastic action, average global warming of 1.5°C will be reached before 2040.
The World Economic Forum’s 2022 Global Risks Report identified biodiversity and nature loss as the world’s most pressing issue for 2022, while interlinked aspects of climate change and water
were also identified as top risks.
We believe it is our responsibility to take action to address and to safeguard against these risks and manage the potential impacts in a timely and responsible manner. Failure to manage and mitigate our environmental risks and impacts could result in fines, increase our insurance, impact our access to or increase our costs of capital, or cause damage to our operations or communities and our social license to operate.
Our holistic approach is applied to all our environmental management including on climate, water, waste management and biodiversity.
We monitor and assess our environmental performance by tracking the number of incidents that occur as a result of our activities and classify each incident on a one to three scale. We also take proactive prevention measures to prevent future incidents.
All our operational mines continue to be certified against ISO 14001:2015 for their environmental management system, and for the fourth consecutive year we recorded zero major environmental incidents. Our site-led teams recorded only two ‘Class 2’ (i.e. medium-level) environmental impacts, a record low and down from five in 2021.