Abstract:

Sustainability development goals (SDGs) framework, proposed in 2015, aims to tackle a multitude of inter-connected and escalating challenges worldwide. The mining industry occupies a forefront position in addressing a spectrum of converging crises, emerging not only as a source of crisis but also as an arena ripe with opportunities for sustainable practices. In this study, sustainability reports from 28 companies were acquired, identified through a literature review on Mining and SDGs. We examine the sustainability disclosure principles of mining industries and introduce two concepts related to priority SDGs. Stated Priority (SP) SDGs, come from corporate disclosure, reflecting a corporate's acknowledgement of commitment to a specific goal and its confidence in obtaining fast benefits. Derived Priority (DP) SDGs, measured based on the response frequency to an assessed sustainability corpus, indicate a corporate's business relevance to each SDG. Through the comparative analysis of each company's SP-SDGs with other sustainability disclosure guidelines and DP-SDGs, valuable insights into the intersection of the mining industry and SDGs emerge.

The results reveal that SDGs are more widely embraced by mining companies, with almost all companies (93%) making efforts to align their sustainability disclosures with SDGs. However, it is noteworthy that these endeavors predominantly center around the "goal" level rather than delving into the more detailed "target" level, a depth reached by only 25% of companies. This suggests distinctive characteristics of SDGs: they are voluntary, not mandatory; global, not regional; comprehensive, not industry-specific; and strategic, not quantitative. Additionally, companies are evidently recognizing the value of refining the extensive SDG agenda, directing their efforts toward a specific subset of goals. The majority (54%) of mining companies have chosen to concentrate on 8-12 goals. In the process of normalizing the response frequencies of both SP-SDGs and DP-SDGs, and subsequently plotting them on a coordinate system, we observed that, respectively, 13 out of 16 SDGs (excluding SDG 17 due to its close relationship with others) deviate within one standard error. This suggests that the mining industry's Stated Priority are closely aligned with its business relevance. SDG 13 (Climate Actions) emerges as the foremost stated priority, signifying that it has captured the mining industry's attention beyond what is mandated by business requirements. Notably, SDG 15 (Life on Land) holds a higher stated priority than its derived priority—a distinctive scenario compared to other industries. This underscores the mining industry's distinctive responsibility in addressing environmental-related issues.

This exploratory hybrid method offers an enhanced comprehension of the current state of sustainability disclosures within the mining industry. Such insights can be further utilized to evaluate individual companies' priorities in sustainability disclosure, thereby fostering a heightened commitment within the mining industry to the SDG framework.

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Yvette Baninla