Environmental

We seek to be the acknowledged leader in environmental performance by demonstrating good stewardship of natural resources by reducing our environmental footprint and meeting community expectations to support sustainable development.

Our aim is to fully integrate environment into the business as a core value, as leading environmental performance also creates and sustains our business value. So we constantly look to improve our performance through consistent application of our environmental standards globally.

Respect for the environment is central to Rio Tinto's approach to sustainable development. Unless we operate responsibly and can demonstrate leadership in all aspects of exploring, mining, processing, transporting and marketing we are unlikely to be given the ready access we need to people, land and capital. In this regard, we want Rio Tinto to be viewed as the public's preferred developer - from exploration right through to mine closure.

What's on these pages?

Management

An outline of environmental management process and a top level overview of our results.

Air quality

How we manage our affect on the quality of the air around our operations, particularly in relation to dust and to oxides of sulphur and fluoride.

Climate change

Our efforts to reduce our energy use and hence greenhouse gas emissions. This includes research aimed at developing more energy efficient technologies for the future.

Water

Our strategic approach to drive excellence in water management across our Group, including how much water we use, how we dispose of water, and how we conserve and recycle water.

Waste

Our waste programmes include rock dumps, tailings, acid rock drainage and non-mineral waste.

Land

How we rehabilitate land around our operations, biodiversity management and protection, providing access to newly-created recreational areas to the community, and land use in the future.