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ESG FOCUS

Mint conditions itself for

sustainable future

by Dominic Piper

he appointment of an inaugural chief sustainability officer
Tand publishing of a maiden sustainability report are the
clearest signs yet that The Perth Mint is on its way to fulfilling its
aim of becoming the sustainability benchmark in the precious
metals industry.
With responsibility for 85% of the country’s exports, The
Perth Mint plays a key role in maintaining Australian gold’s
international reputation. Chief sustainability officer Stephanie
Ward believes its dominant position offers the Mint and
its stakeholders an opportunity to demonstrate an ethical,
transparent industry to investors and end-users across the
world.
“We are honoured to have that opportunity to influence,”
Ward told GMJ. “It is an opportunity to inspire others to strive
towards a sustainable mindset. We want others to follow us so
together we are doing better.”
ESG has risen to the forefront of the gold mining sector’s
risk profile with investors as keen to understand potential
environmental, social and governance hurdles as they are
operational or financial obstacles.
“It is more and more important with retail investors, institutions
and banks all focusing on ESG performance,” Ward said. “It
used to be operations and financial performance were front- Stephanie Ward
and-centre, with corporate social responsibility ‘over here’.
Now, we are seeing ESG performance as more of a pointer to
the operational and financial health of companies.” environmental, social or governance issues.”
As access to capital becomes intrinsically linked to ESG For Ward, meeting ESG goals requires cooperation between
performance, miners are finding not only is the space more partners and stakeholders, pointing to its pursuit of net-zero
important but also more complex. Ward said the Mint’s carbon emissions as a worthy example.
own sustainability principles could help clients navigate the
“The largest single contributor to our carbon footprint is freight
increasingly complicated requirements.
which makes up the vast majority of our Scope 3 emissions
The Mint’s first sustainability report highlighted its efforts and more than 40% of our total emissions,” she said. “But
around seven core ESG topics – safety and wellbeing; anti- we are not looking to push that away into another part of the
money laundering and counter-terrorism financing; waste and value chain. We are working on a new initiative now that will
hazardous materials management; ethical and sustainable reduce our Scope 3 emissions by identifying ways to reduce
supply chains; ethics and values; cyber, data and privacy; and kilometres travelled and decrease or offset transport-related
air emissions and quality. emissions.”
Ward said mining clients could benefit from progress across In the gold refinery itself, the Mint is banking on technology
this spectrum. to make it the world’s most technologically advanced refinery.
“Miners who choose to work with us have the benefit of “We have new processes and equipment and expect
working with an organisation that is striving to be a sustainable to continue with initiatives around real improvement in
benchmark in reporting,” she said. “They have access to our downstream,” Ward said.
sustainability performance. So, mid-tier and junior miners get
At its East Perth headquarters, a full lighting upgrade reduced
the benefit of our relentless focus on sustainability whether it be
CO2 emissions by 20.5 tpa in 2021 alone.

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