The opportunities in aligning environmental and social management systems - a South African mining case study

Abstract

Historic environmental pollution and degradation from mining and mining related activities has had an adverse impact on the success of mining organisations. This is mainly as a result of pressure from stakeholders (authorities and communities) to hold mining corporations to account for the impacts of their activities, services and products on the environment. Such impacts have also affected the safety, health and wellbeing of communities. In order to curb this, mining (and other industries) across the world have adopted various standards, systems and strategies to demonstrate sound business practises that include environmental stewardship. These include the voluntary adoption of systems that are based on internationally recognised standards, i.e. ISO14001. The latest version of this standard explicitly requires organisations to incorporate the needs and expectations of interested parties and to address risks and opportunities in order to derive value to the environment, stakeholders and the business. To date, mining corporations across the globe experience difficulties in adopting sustainable practices that demonstrate responsible environmental management. One organisation has developed an objective of ‘Zero Waste to Landfill by 2020’ using processes and procedures of its ISO14001-based environmental management systems (EMS). However, the benefit is not only for maintaining certification, but host communities also benefit from the recycling of non-mineral waste. This objective demonstrates responsible environmental (waste) management and simultaneously assists the organisation to meet some of its social objectives. Therefore, the benefit of the EMS in the organisation may potentially be underestimated. This could mean that other benefits, that could be delivered by the system, that may benefit stakeholders and the business, are possibly not realised. This may be attributed to systems that are not aligned and/or business units/functions operating in isolation. This research aims to understand the opportunities that exist in aligning environmental and social management systems, using a South African mine as a case study. The views, opinions and perceptions of a selected audience are investigated and presented in this study focusing on five key environmental aspects. Whilst the environmental department respondents are mostly concerned with compliance to applicable legislation, the social performance department respondents are more concerned with stakeholder relations. However, what emanates from the data collected is that participants are of the view that there are opportunities that exist in other aspects and that true value is in can be realised through collaboration across disciplines.