#SustyTalk: Is nature-positive mining possible?
The #SustyTalk series by edie connects audiences with business leaders who are driving sustainability and climate action.
In this nature-focused episode, edie’s content editor Sarah George is in conversation with ICMM President and CEO Rohitesh Dhawan, on whether mining and metals – which is not widely publicly trusted to conserve and restore nature due to historic approaches – can lead the way to a private sector which values and respects biodiversity.
He talks about leading companies’ experience piloting the Taskforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures’ (TNFD) framework to measure and disclose nature risks, opportunities and impact. He also argues that these businesses need to go beyond their own operations, advocating for legislation and regulation to encourage more firms to follow suit, grounded in the international UN biodiversity treaty.
During the interview, Ro says that disclosure is “not enough on its own”. Businesses need to make “nature a boardroom issue for the top executive to be thinking about constantly, as nature loss is creating very significant risks for business now, and their future business model.”
Businesses also need to advocate to transform their whole sectoral and regional economies. Ro says: “With nature, we are using our collective voice as a group of the largest operators in the sector, one-third of the sector, to call on policymakers to put in place measures and policies that will transition our whole economy from one which frankly treats nature as a dumping ground for our waste to one that actually values it and puts it front and centre of how we make decisions.”
