ESG: How far have we come?

ESG has been a key focus in mining for more than fifteen years. However performance reporting around ESG is still an evolving area, as more resource professionals deepen their knowledge of this critical area and how to successfully communicate about it with stakeholders. At the AusIMM Thought Leadership Series 2021, Gemma Tognini, Executive Director at GT Communications, sat down with ESG experts to understand what tangible transformation has occurred in the resources sector. In this three-part series, environmental social and governance (ESG) experts weigh in on the most significant changes they’ve observed over the past decade.   

“I see it through a fairly particular prism, which is the aboriginal interest in these matters,” says the Honourable Fred Chaney, a leading advocate for First Nation’s rights and representations. For nearly sixty years, Chaney has been working to advance the reconciliation movement in Australia, founding Reconciliation Australia in 2001. 

“There has been extraordinary change. But really it’s not in the last ten years, it was in the mid-90s when the industry responded to the Mabo judgement. Rio Tinto led the charge, Leon Davis led the charge and the sensitive new-age miner came into existence. We’ve had a succession of engagements since that time.” Chaney early advocate for Aboriginal voting rights in the 1960s and he later helped establish the Aboriginal Legal Service of WA. 

“I think it’s a point worth making,” Chaney continues, “That the mining industry’s contribution to that area of responsibility is driven by the recognition that people had legal rights and were stakeholders. Prior to that time, they were people to be cleared away and gotten out of the way… an inconvenience. I much prefer the Australia I live in now to the Australia I grew up in. I think it’s considerably improved.” 

While Chaney celebrates the shift in attitude, he also emphasises the need for ongoing stakeholder engagement: “I think there’s a lesson to be learned in seeing the industry leader- and I would say that Rio were the leader – fall off the perch with the Juukan Gorge exercise. And it’s a really solid reminder that you can’t set and forget.” 

“You actually have to be continuously engaged in the business of relationships… In seeing this as a sophisticated area of management. Same as with safety, same as with human resources, same as with industrial relations and so on. This is a constant issue which needs your attention.” 

Environment, social and governance performance has become increasingly important to the resources sector, particularly to investors. In the next instalment of this series, we hear from Alison Terry, Director of Sustainability and Corporate Affairs at Fortescue Metals Group. 

This article was adapted from the AusIMM Thought Leadership Series 2021 webinar. 

To find out more about how to correctly evaluate ESG/SR risk, threats and opportunities, enrol in AusIMM’s ESG and Social Responsibility Professional Certificate.