Editorial: A fresh look at mining’s CSR success stories – by John Cumming (Northern Miner – August 2, 2016)

http://www.northernminer.com/

Admittedly, our eyes tend to glaze over at the thought of reading a 74-page report on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in mining, but a newly released one by the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, the UN Development Programme, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and the World Economic Forum balances the characteristic vagueness of so many CSR reports with interesting case studies of mining’s CSR success stories.

The report, entitled “Mapping mining to the sustainable development goals: an atlas” (though there’s no mapping and it isn’t actually an atlas), sets out to define mining’s relationship to the UN’s wider Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2015–2030, updating the ones that had been laid out in 2000.

Large-scale mining is a global industry with 6,000 companies employing 2.5 million people, and the report’s authors recognize that, when managed appropriately, mining “can create jobs, spur innovation and bring investment and infrastructure at a game-changing scale over long time horizons.”

If it is managed poorly, however, “mining can also lead to environmental degradation, displaced populations, inequality and increased conflict,” as well as gender-based violence, tax evasion and corruption, and increased risk of health challenges.

The report is based on research and interviews with 60 global experts from industry, civil society, governments, academia, international organizations and financial institutions conducted in mid-2015, and there was public consultation in early 2016.

For the rest of this article, click here: http://www.northernminer.com/environment/editorial-fresh-look-minings-csr-success-stories/1003775995/