Embarking on a Journey Toward a Sustainable Future

Having worked previously in the oil and gas industry, I’m very excited to embark on a new adventure and start an investment research consulting project. The project is in the mining field, which is new to me yet very interesting. The goal is to unlock positive change in the mining sector, a field that is critical to our world, and help make it more sustainable in the future. The geographical coverage includes both North and South America, but the focus will be on North America, as it has a more established practice of sustainability reporting, providing a solid foundation for our studies.

To provide some background, the client has established a global common language for mining businesses to help them take responsibility for their impact. They have implemented a sustainability reporting framework for these companies, aimed at increasing transparency and accountability. This initiative will also enable businesses to reflect on their overall sustainability development and contributions, and to effectively communicate this to stakeholders. The client has been focused on refining their standards to attract more adopters and reporters, conducting adoption studies, and gathering reports from around the world. Our mission in this project is to assess the individual impacts of mining businesses on sustainability performance and to collectively identify the link between sustainability reporting and performance. 

After our initial meeting with the client, I realized that while seemingly straightforward, the importance of not only bringing in reporting adopters and enhancing the standards, but also a critical principle, the importance of assessing the impact over time. The client has given us the initial task to establish three criteria to measure the improvement of a company’s environmental and social impacts. From the client emphasis, the focus will mainly shift towards social impacts, and preferably using quantitative metrics. This is because there is more environmental sustainability reports published and the focus is on it now especially with the energy transition attention, however the client wants us to focus on the social impact such as job creation. I have always been focused on energy and environmental impact, so this will be a new experience for me and I’m excited to work on it as it is more on the human side. 

The project has two phases which is creating these criteria of measurement and then writing the case study reports. We will take our time in the first stage because the client has emphasized the importance of setting the measurement criteria as solid and strong as possible from the beginning and not to rush through it and take the time to get the measurement right. This has reminded me that we always rush to get things done in the beginning, however the beginning is very important to set the base and stage right before the project is in advanced stage. While this task involves a lot of research to sculpt a study framework, we need to make sure that the data is tangible, and we are able to quantify and measure them. The main challenge for our team is choosing the right criteria. If we don't, our case studies may not be as strong, which will limit our ability to showcase the importance and the impact of sustainability reporting to other businesses. 

In the beginning, I remember feeling worried about the project since it is not within my familiarity and in the mining sector. However, after meeting the team I felt relieved. This is because in the team, there are people who are familiar with the industry, and this made me feel reassured and remember the collective support of the team. And that we can combine our expertise such as my expertise in the environmental side of the business. I felt that the team is very helpful, and I will learn a lot from them. We share the same enthusiasm and work ethic perspective as me. They have been accommodating and understanding of our busy schedules and choose a time that we are all free in while helping each other on a mission. From the first client meeting I felt the rhythm between us.  

Lastly, I am confident that our accomplishments as a team will make a positive impact on the world. We will showcase our work to mining businesses to help guide them toward a sustainable future, demonstrating how comprehensive sustainability reporting can enhance their sustainability performance and highlight the connections between the two. Without having a clear identity beyond financial benefits, the businesses would risk diluting their environmental and human touch, which will affect their reputation and investor attraction, which are critical for sustainable value creation.