Hydropower facility

Sustainability Reporting

2022

Sustainability Reporting

Sustainability Fact Book 2022
XLSX
1.87 MB
Sustainability Glossary 2022
PDF
554 KB
  • Past reports

    Sustainability Fact Book 2021
    Sustainability Fact Book 2021
    XLSX
    3 MB
    Sustainability Glossary 2021
    PDF
    121 KB
    REACH Compliance: European Union Chemicals Legislation
    PDF
    21 KB
    Sustainability Fact Book 2020
    Sustainability Fact Book 2020
    XLSX
    1.67 MB
    Sustainability Glossary 2020
    PDF
    757 KB
    Sustainability Report 2019
    Sustainability Highlights 2019
    PDF
    266 KB
    Sustainability Appendix 2019
    PDF
    550 KB
    Sustainability Glossary 2019
    PDF
    2.64 MB
    Sustainability Report 2018
    Sustainability Report 2018
    PDF
    9.78 MB
    Sustainability Glossary 2018
    PDF
    56 KB
    GRI Report 2018
    PDF
    954 KB
    Sustainability Report 2017
    PDF
    6.53 MB
    Sustainability Report 2016
    PDF
    7.62 MB
    Sustainability Report 2015
    PDF
    3.64 MB
    Sustainability Report 2014
    PDF
    7.22 MB
    Sustainability Report 2013
    PDF
    12.93 MB
    Sustainability Report 2012
    PDF
    9.89 MB

In 2022, we continued to progress on our objectives to achieve impeccable ESG credentials and strengthen our social licence. Among other initiatives, we focused on becoming a better partner to our host communities, enhancing our safety maturity model, and beginning to implement the Everyday Respect recommendations. We also focused on minimising the risks and the environmental footprint of our operations and working on our Climate Action Plan. 

2022 sustainability targets and key achievements

  • Supplying low-intensity materials
    Lead SDGs
    12
    		 Responsible consumption and production
    17
    		 Partnerships for the goals
    Supporting SDGs
    9
    		 Industry, innovation and infrastructure
    13
    		 Climate action

    Targets

    • To achieve net zero emissions from our operations (Scope 1 and 2) by 2050
    Key achievements 
     $537 million
    		 (C$737 million) to be invested over eight years to decarbonise our Rio Tinto Iron and Titanium (RTIT) Quebec Operations in partnership with the Government of Canada. 
    One-year biofuel trial
    		 in partnership with BP to reduce carbon emissions from our marine fleet.
    1.2 million
    		 low-carbon beverage cans produced as part of our partnership with Corona Canada. The cans were made using our aluminium leveraging ELYSISTM technology.
    $29 million
    		 invested in constructing an aluminium recycling facility at our Arvida Plant in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec, Canada to expand our offering of low-carbon aluminium solutions.
    First production
    		 of spodumene concentrate, a mineral used in the production of lithium for batteries, at a demonstration plant in our RTIT Quebec Operations in Canada.
    Around 20 tonnes
    		 of tellurium can now be produced every year at Kennecott in Utah, US. Tellurium is a critical mineral used in advanced thin film photovoltaic solar panels.
  • Caring for our planet: Being a trusted steward of resources
    Lead SDGs
    12
    		 Responsible consumption and production
    17
    		 Partnerships for the goals
    Supporting SDGs
    6
    		 Clean water and sanitation
    9
    		 Industry, innovation and infrastructure
    13
    		 Climate action
    15
    		 Life on land

    Targets

    • To reduce our absolute Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 15% by 2025 and by 50% by 2030
    • To achieve local water stewardship targets for selected sites by 2023
    Key achievements
    7% reduction
    		 in Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions below our 2018 baseline.
    40-tonne-payload
    		 agile autonomous haul trucks trialled with Scania at our mine in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, offering potential environmental and productivity benefits.
    522km2
    		 cumulative land rehabilitated to end of 2022, mostly at our bauxite mines in Australia, mineral sands mines in South Africa and Madagascar, and at our iron ore mines and exploration areas in the Pilbara, Western Australia.
    5 of the 7
    		 water stewardship targets remain on track for attainment in 2023.
    8 submissions
    		 from technology innovators selected to progress beyond the Charge on Innovation Challenge.
    $4 million
    		 to explore new approaches in carbon mineralisation technology as a way to safely and permanently store carbon as rock.
  • Supporting social and economic opportunity
    Lead SDGs
    8
    		 Decent work and economic growth
    17
    		 Partnerships for the goals
    Supporting SDGs
    10
    		 Reduced inequalities

    Targets

    • To increase contestable spend sourced from suppliers local to our operations year-on-year
    Key achievements
    $2.7 billion
    		 spent with local1 suppliers, which represents 14.5% of total contestable spend.
    $25.2 million
    		 invested through the Rio Tinto COVID-19 Fund between 2020 and 2022 to support global grass-roots, community COVID-19 preparedness and recovery programmes.
    6 formal agreements
    		 signed with Indigenous rights holders across our global footprint.
    $188 million
    		 spent with Indigenous suppliers in Canada.
    $62.6 million
    		 contributed to community programmes across a wide range of social and economic categories.
    59% increase
    		 in Australian Indigenous leaders since 2020.

    1. We take a “site-centric” view of the definition of local, which allows operations to establish their own definition, based on a set of common principles. These principles require that each operation, in defining “local” takes into consideration its geographic, social and economic area of impact as well as ownership. For example, suppliers located within the Pilbara Region of Western Australia are defined as “local” for Rio Tinto Iron Ore’s Pilbara Operations. This approach is consistent with international best practice and aligns with the ICMM Social and Economic Reporting Framework guidance.

  • Becoming a socially responsible business partner
    Lead SDGs
    8
    		 Decent work and economic growth
    17
    		 Partnerships for the goals
    Supporting SDGs
    3
    		 Good health and well-being
    4
    		 Quality education
    5
    		 Gender equality
    10
    		 Reduced inequalities

    Targets

    • To reach zero fatalities and to eliminate workplace injuries and catastrophic events. All-injury frequency rate target: 0.38
    • To have all of our businesses identify at least one critical health hazard material to their business, and demonstrate a year-on-year reduction of exposure to that hazard
    • To reduce the rate of new occupational illnesses each year
    • To improve diversity in our business by:
      • Increasing women in the business (including in senior leadership) by 2% each year
      • Aiming for 50% women in our graduate intake
      • Aiming for 30% of our graduate intake to be from places where we are developing new businesses
    • To improve our employee engagement and satisfaction
    Key achievements
    Zero fatalities
    		 at managed operations
    0.40
    		 all-injury frequency rate (AIFR)
    1.37 million
    		 critical risk management (CRM) verifications
    2.8% increase
    		 in the rate of new occupational illnesses since 2021
    9 assets
    		 achieved an exposure reduction to known health risks (airborne contaminants and noise)
    2-point increase
    		 in our employee satisfaction score (eSAT) since 2021 (from 71 to 73)
    22.9%
    		 of our workforce are women, up 1.4% from 20212
    25%
    		 of executive leaders are women, same as 2021
    28.3%
    		 of senior leadership are women, up 0.9% from 2021
    30%
    		 of Board roles are held by women, down 6.4% from 2021
    53%
    		 of our graduate intake are women, down 5% from 2021
    36%
    		 of our graduates were from places where we are developing new businesses, up 1% from 2021

    2. Women % increase is 1.37% rounded to 1.4%

Year on year performance charts

Use the interactive charts to see current and historical data relating to our performance across topics including health and safety, climate change, environment, communities, human rights, responsible sourcing and transparency.

Find out more about our 2022 performance for:

Health, Safety & Wellbeing
People
Communities
Climate Change
Land
Water
Air & Waste
Biodiversity
Tailings
Human Rights
Closure
Ethics & Compliance
Value Chain

Reporting on what matters

We want to ensure all our stakeholders benefit from the success of our business. To do this, our priorities and performance must align with society’s expectations, which are constantly evolving. So each year we complete a sustainability materiality assessment to understand which issues and topics matter most to, and have the greatest impact on, our stakeholders and our business.

  • What is important now and what will be important in the future

    We gather information on sustainability topics and their impact from internal and external stakeholders and employees via interviews, surveys, and reviews of publicly available materials. We ask them what is important now, and what they think will be important in five to ten years. The insights we gather through this process also guide our approach to sustainability and how we report externally.

    What is important now

    Our internal and external stakeholders are broadly aligned on the four most important sustainability topics. Climate change is the most important issue and includes concerns about emissions reduction and how resilient and adaptable our business is to cope with climate-induced change. Respecting human rights; cultural and heritage site management; and health, safety and wellbeing are other highly material topics. For our business, the safety and wellbeing of our people remains our highest priority (see page 55). Business integrity, governance, and local community relations are important topics as we continue to build trusting relationships with our partners, employees and host countries.

    What will be important in the future

    Our internal and external stakeholders feel that climate change will only continue to increase in importance over the next decade, as will geopolitical uncertainty, the impact of technology, respecting human rights, business integrity and governance, supply chain transparency and end-to-end materials management. Other emerging critical topics include water management due to the reliance of local communities and mining operations on an increasingly scarce resource, and biodiversity due to the increasing impacts of climate change. Managing all these well will be integral to our social licence to operate.

  • Reporting our performance

    Our sustainability materiality assessment records the threshold at which an issue or topic becomes important enough for us to report on externally. The importance of a topic is based on the significance of its impact on stakeholders. A sustainability materiality assessment differs from financial materiality, which may use financial metrics or other quantitative analyses to determine what would be considered a significant or material impact.

    As a member of the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), we commit to reporting on our sustainability performance against Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards and implementing the ICMM Performance Expectations (PEs).

    Our teams identified opportunities to improve our performance in human rights, risk management, health and safety, environmental performance, conservation of biodiversity, responsible production and social performance. We will work through these opportunities with our assets over the coming months.

#Based on 60 internal and 68 external stakeholders (note: some interviewees chose not to answer one or more questions). The score represents an average of all respondents in each stakeholder group. Source: Primary interviews and surveys.

Contact our Sustainability team

Sustainability

E: sustainability@riotinto.com

Our 2022 reports