Glencore : 2019 Sustainability Report

Addressing our safety performance

Our goal is to eliminate fatalities and serious injuries across all of our operations. We are deeply saddened that during 2019, seventeen people lost their lives at our managed operations. All loss of life is unacceptable and we believe that through strong leadership, we can create and maintain safe workplaces for all of our people.

We have taken immediate actions and are implementing a number of initiatives to address our safety performance. These include major fatality reduction interventions at Mopani Copper Mines in Zambia and Kazzinc in Kazakhstan, which were not meeting our safety expectations and standards. These interventions established a performance baseline that identifies opportunities to improve processes and behaviour.

Moreover, at our ten assets with the poorest safety performance, we are undertaking a corporate-led deep dive review of the implementation of our group-wide initiative SafeWork.

Our progress in reducing emissions

As one of the world's largest diversified resource companies, we have a key role to play in enabling the transition to a low-carbon economy. We seek to decarbonise our own operational footprint, and to support national programmes to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.

In 2017, we set a target of reducing our Scope 1 and 2 emissions intensity by 5% by 2020 against a 2016 baseline. We have surpassed this target and to date we have reduced our emissions intensity by 9.7%.

In February 2020, we announced that our projected reduction of Scope 3 emissions, those arising from the sale and use of our own products, notably oil and coal, would be around 30% by 2035. We were one of the first mining companies to publish Scope 3 projections. During the year, we will publish longer-term targets for our Scope 1 and 2 emissions that support the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Our commitment to responsible sourcing and supply

In addition to operating responsibly, we seek to incorporate social, ethical and environmental considerations in our relationships with suppliers and customers. In particular, we are committed to understanding and addressing the risk of human rights violations in our supply chains.
Last year, we became a member of the Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI). The RMI is a respected platform for its 380 member companies to address responsible mineral sourcing issues in their supply chains.

In late 2019, we joined the Responsible Sourcing Blockchain Network (RSBN) to support our efforts on responsible cobalt sourcing. The RSBN is a pioneering initiative of the metals supply chain, which looks at ways of applying blockchain to commodity sourcing.

Our support during COVID-19

As we publish this report, the world is plunged into uncertain times due to the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus has affected Glencore, with the majority of our office-based employees working from home and, with the closure of national borders and lockdowns announced by governments, the moving of a number of our assets onto care and maintenance.

We recognize that the pandemic is having a significant impact on our workers, their families and the local communities living around our operations. We are proud to have launched a $25m Community Support Fund that takes a flexible and responsive approach to providing assistance, while complementing existing efforts by our local teams to support their communities during this unprecedented time.

Find out more and download the report here.