Environmental performance
WHY THE ENVIRONMENT IS MATERIAL TO HARMONY
We recognise that our business and business processes have, and can have, a negative effect on surrounding communities and the natural environment, and that it is our responsibility to avoid, mitigate, manage and limit these impacts.
At the same time, what we do and how we do it can have a positive effect on our natural environment and communities; for example, by ensuring beneficial land use post-mining. We need to identify appropriate, sustainable opportunities for this to occur and ensure that we maximise these opportunities. In so doing, we will reduce our operating costs and exposure to risk while ensuring we leave a lasting, positive legacy.
Relevant material issues: protecting our licence to operate, maintaining our impact
OUR APPROACH
In FY13, our environmental strategy was revised following environmental assessments conducted across the company. Our strategy aims to optimise our environmental performance by managing the environmental impacts, by focusing on effective risk controls, reducing environmental liabilities, ensuring responsible stewardship of our products within our scope of influence, complying with environmental legislation and regulations and by creating a learning, sharing environmental culture that replicates experience from inside and outside the organisation and that shares knowledge and expertise within the group.
The board-approved environmental policy supports the revised strategy. Further, we have developed technical and performance standards and guidelines to ensure consistency at all our operations, and these are incorporated into operational environmental management systems and implemented in line with the ISO 14001 standardisation process in terms of which all new and long-life assets will be certified by FY15.
The environmental policy sets out our commitment to ensure that mine closure is undertaken to ensure long-term environmental stability and beneficial land use post-mining that promotes sustainable livelihoods in our communities. This policy underpins our understanding of the entire life cycle of our product.
Outlook
We continue to pursue our five-year environmental objectives:
| Group aggregate targets FY14 – FY18 | Baseline |
|---|---|
| Baseline FY13 | |
| Reduce amount of water used for primary activities (intensity and absolute) by 4.5% | Absolute: 18 556m3 Intensity: 1.01m3/t |
| Total environmental legal compliance | 0 fines |
| Improve on percentage of water recycled (intensity and absolute) by 5% | 60% |
| Implementation 80% of biodiversity action plans | All operations have biodiversity action plans |
| Reduce land available for rehabilitation by 2% | 9.9ha |
| Baseline FY08 | |
| Reduce absolute electricity consumption by 3% | 4 422 000MWh |
| Reduce intensity of electricity consumption (MWh/t treated) by 2% | 0.35MWh/t |
| Reduce total carbon emissions by 3% | 5 343 000t CO2e |
| Reduce carbon emission intensity (CO2/t treated) by 2% | 0.3t CO2e/t |