Events, Media & Communications

Together, Working to Build Stronger Sustainability Practices

Apr 20, 2016 2:00 PM ET

Above Ground

In March 2016, members of Goldcorp’s global team convened for the company’s bi-annual Sustainability Summit to further our sustainability journey. Teams from Sustainability, including CSR, Environment and Security; Technical Services; Human Resources; Communications; Operations and Safety and Health, as well as all members of the Board’s Sustainability, Environment, Health & Safety (SEH&S) Committee were in attendance for three days of learning, dialogue and knowledge sharing.

Goldcorp was also pleased to welcome guest speakers who challenged, provoked and inspired our thinking, including: Paul Gilding, former executive director of Greenpeace International and author of The Great Disruption: How the climate crisis will transform the global economy; Craig Sexton Creative Director at DuPont Sustainability Solutions; Felipe Calderon, former President of Mexico; and John Ruggie, past UN Special Representative on business & human rights and Professor in Human Rights and International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. As Mr. Calderon participated in the inauguration of our Penasquito mine in 2010, it was gratifying to gain his unique perspective on Goldcorp’s sustainability journey over the years.

Goldcorp’s Senior Vice President, Sustainability Jerry Danni kicked off the plenary sessions by reviewing the company’s implementation and rollout of Goldcorp’s Sustainability Excellence Management System (SEMS). At the company’s 2014 Sustainability Summit, SEMS was introduced as a concept. Fast forward two years and the SEMS framework has been rolled out company-wide and selected mine sites have already successfully passed SEMS audits. SEMS standards and practices are being adopted “at the face” and are becoming integral to the way Goldcorp conducts business every day.

Following a full day of plenary sessions, attendees attended in-depth sessions in each of the four SEMS functional areas: Safety and Health, CSR, Environment and Security. The three-day session ended with Closing Remarks, where annual safety awards were presented and key takeaways in each functional area were summarized.

Penasquito won the 2015 Safety Bear award for improved transparency and accountability and Marlin won for best Safety Performance in 2015, having the lowest All Injury Frequency Rate (AIFR) and most improved Lost Time Injury Rate (LTIR).

These were some of my key takeaways for each of the areas:

  • CSR stressed the importance of social risk as an economic risk if not managed properly; the need for local employment and procurement to start from the earliest beginnings of a project to build relationships and help communities build capacity; and for continued and proactive stakeholder engagement through the entire mine life.

  • Safety reiterated the positive safety effect of daily employee engagements with the rollout of the company’s new StepIn management training program. When leaders meaningfully touch people at the heart, the impact on safety is notable, as seen at both of the winning Safety Bear Award sites. Learnings from the 2015 fatality at Musselwhite mine were reviewed in depth to ensure all other mine sites can avoid similar future tragedies.

  • Water management and the company’s need to use and treat less water is of paramount importance, as is the need to use alternative renewable sources to increase energy management, especially as each mine site works to better understand the effect of carbon pricing

  • Our Security team came away from the conference with a strategic plan including three year objectives built from the ground up with input from all the sites and regions, the creation of a self-assessment tool to track trends on governance and adherence to internationally-accepted standards, and the application of the company’s enterprise risk management assessment tool to security.

Most importantly, senior executives and mine general managers committed to incorporating these key takeaways to practices at our mine sites, as input for actionable deliverables.

On behalf of SEHS committee of the Board, John Bell and Clem Pelletier expressed pride for the passion and dedication of the company’s teams and individuals working towards advancing our sustainability journey. Mr. Bell announced that he will be retiring from the Board of Directors in April and handing the reigns as Chairman of the SEH&S Committee to Clem Pelletier.

Expect to see more information, as we continue our journey of continuous improvement, creating sustainable value, and living up to our sustainability vision: Our Planet. Our Choices. Our Legacy.

Goldcorp Inc.