2021 Virtual Undergraduate Research Symposium

2021 Virtual Undergraduate Research Symposium

Sustainability Assessment and Its Mapping to SDGs for the Extractive Industries

Sustainability Assessment and Its Mapping to SDGs for the Extractive Industries

PROJECT NUMBER: 77 | AUTHOR: Christina Adjiman​, Petroleum Engineering

MENTORS: Sebnem Düzgün and Nicole Smith, Mining Engineering

ABSTRACT

Extractive industries, including mining and oil and gas companies have been called on to contribute to the Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) as defined by the United Nations’ general assembly in 2015. However, this has been a challenge over the years, even though there were expectations of an increase in sustainability reporting after 2016. This research analyzed mining companies’ contributions to the SDGs by taking into account indicators of sustainability, and investigated changes in reporting practices over time. For this purpose, the indicators were extracted from yearly sustainability reports of eight major mining companies and then mapped to the SDGs. Through a quantitative analysis of environmental indicators reporting from 2012 to 2019, our findings showed a decreasing trend in reporting environmental indicators with SDG17 (Partnership for the Goals: Transparency Initiative) covered at only 22%. On the other hand, the quantitative analysis of economic indicators over the 8 years resulted in an increasing trend in reporting with consistent coverage (100%) on ethical investments indicator corresponding to SDG1 (No Poverty) and SDG2 (Zero Hunger). For the environmental indicators, SDG7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) appeared the most in reporting at 81%, while it was the least covered at only 2% for the economic indicators including water treatment investments. These results show a focus on ethical investments demonstrated by mining companies rather than water treatment investments for the economic indicators, and inconsistencies in reporting, especially production quantities and transportation data for the environmental indicators.

PRESENTATION

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Christina will graduate this May with a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering. For the past two semesters, she participated in the MURF project with the Mining Department. The project consisted of assessing the sustainability of the mining companies, analyzing their mining contributions to the SDGs by considering indicators of sustainability, as well as investigating changes in reporting practices over time. To achieve this goal, Christina reviewed sustainability reports of height major mining companies to extract and analyze environmental and economic sustainability indicators, and map them to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as specified by the United Nations. After her graduation, Christina intends to either gain professional experience in the industry or pursue a Master’s degree in Mineral Economics and Management.

2 Comments

  1. What do you see as some next steps that the extractive industries should take as a result of your work? Nicely done!

    • Thank you very much CJ !
      I think the next step that the extractive industries can take, especially mining, which is the one I focused on, is to re-evaluate what they consider as sustainability indicators as they release information in their sustainability reports. They should include the necessary data that will allow to better assess their sustainability contributions. For example, the results of this research show that mining companies do not include or disclose transportation data (transport of products, distance including in the mine/quarry etc.) which is important to evaluate the environmental impacts of transporting goods and materials used for the organization’s operations. Therefore, the extractive industries can definitely work on this aspect.

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