Incidents
Rio Tinto's environmental performance is built from a foundation of compliance with all environmental laws, regulations and voluntary commitments. There is a four tiered categorisation of incidents (low, moderate, high and critical) that is based on the potential, rather than actual, harm to the environment resulting from an incident. High and critical incidents are treated as significant. Examples of significant incidents.
The aim is to ensure that all incidents, particularly significant incidents, are reported, addressed quickly and their occurrence reduced. In 2005, the target was to achieve zero significant spills.
A total of 2,505 environment incidents were reported internally in 2006, an increase of five per cent from 2004. The majority of these incidents were classified as low and this is partly attributed to better reporting of incidents. There were eight significant environmental incidents in 2005 (2004:16), two of these were spills (2004:4)
By the end of 2005, 88 per cent of net environment incidents and 50 per cent of significant incidents had been resolved1. Significant incidents have greater potential for harm and as a result, the actions required to prevent recurrence may take longer to implement. As part of the internal assurance process, businesses are required to report significant incidents and the status of actions to address them until they are resolved.
Fines for infringement of environmental regulations involved three operations and totalled US$67,900 in 2005, compared to US$53,800 in 2004.
1 This includes incidents that occurred during 2005 as well as incidents which occurred prior to 2005 but had not been resolved.
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Significant incidents
Spills
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