Global Mining Symposium: Companies that don’t apply ESG will have trouble accessing capital

Companies in the mining industry need to move away from the mindset that environmental, social, and governance disclosure is primarily a compliance issue to a mindset that embeds ESG awareness and permeates it throughout the entire organization.  

That’s the key takeaway from a discussion at the recent Global Mining Symposium, which explored how investors and other stakeholders can better track the ESG performance of mining companies. 

“If you think of the heart of ESG, it’s actually just common sense,” Jamie Strauss, founder, president and CEO of Digbee ESG, an ESG disclosure platform for the mining industry that is currently in development. “The problem, however, is how do companies practically disclose ESG performance when there are over 40 different ESG standards, which is well beyond the resources available for most explorers, developers, and producers to properly and accurately assess and disclose their ESG performance.”

The lack of standardization means there is no meaningful way for fund managers, investors, and stakeholders to assess and compare a company’s ESG performance. “Consequently, the benefits for those companies that properly apply sound ESG principles are lost, leading to a credibility gap for companies that are tracking and reporting on ESG.”

Digbee, Strauss said, provides the “silver bullet” that the industry has been looking for and will have “a positive impact on the sector as a whole” in terms of local stakeholders, society, and the environment.