Developing a global, integrated HSEC management system
Rio Tinto Exploration is the business unit responsible for finding and evaluating mining areas around the world. They undertook a major effort in 2005 to enhance their management of health, safety, environmental and community (HSEC) issues. Rio Tinto Exploration sought to certify all of its operations under ISO 14001, the international standard for environmental management systems, and conducted a gap analysis to identify where it needed to enhance its systems in order to achieve certification.
The following actions were identified:
- Develop a comprehensive environmental management system that would cover Rio Tinto Exploration's global operations, while allowing flexibility to meet local situations and needs, streamlining the process of seeking ISO 14001 certification.
- Incorporate health, safety, environment and community issues into the global management system, leading to more efficient management.
HSEC professionals worked with other functional groups within Rio Tinto Exploration to ensure that the management system being developed would work for everyone, including the geologists in the field. The project team tightly aligned the HSEC planning cycle with the overall business planning cycle to support sound, efficient decision making.
In 2005, the HSEC management system was fully developed, with implementation initially focusing on the environment. In December 2005, Rio Tinto Exploration achieved its goal of ISO14001 certification. Based on benchmarking and current knowledge, Rio Tinto Exploration is the first exploration division of any major multinational, diversified miner to be certified to ISO 14001.
Further integration of the HSEC system is planned for 2006 Rio Tinto Exploration has begun planning for achieving certification under OHSAS 18001, an occupational health and safety management system standard.
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