On the Monday morning of #PDAC2018 we once again hosted colleagues, clients and friends at SDC’s second annual Breakfast Event for Mining and Sustainability, at the elegant National Club in Toronto. While coffee was poured and guests enjoyed an elegant breakfast, our keynote speaker did not disappoint.
Business and sustainability guru, David Wheeler, provoked a very interesting discussion cushioned by excitement and a little skepticism amongst the attendees. He spoke on: “Climate and transition to a low carbon economy: the great disruption or the great opportunity for extractive industries”.
Below are the five key messages that I took away from David’s presentation.
- We (the mining sector) are stuck in a Compliance Culture, we are (sort of) trying to become a Relationship Management Culture, and we are far from being a Sustainable Organization Culture. (See graphic below.)
- Our world will continue needing mined materials in new ways of usage. Outlook and expectations of growing needs for alternative and clean technologies are changing our sector – and its optics.
- Potential for the mining sector to be a major contributor to building a low carbon economy is already being realized and recognized.
- We (the mining sector) are well-positioned to have considerable, positive impact in saving future generations who are in jeopardy due to global warming trends.
- Rethink how we extract, process and deliver our minerals. Take a systems-wide perspective to be innovative, creative, collaborative and imaginative. Think ‘circular economy’.
Thank you to everyone who joined us for an out-of-the-box morning on mining and circular economies.
We look forward to welcoming everyone again next year – #PDAC2019.
