I was honored to represent SME at the Boy Scouts of America 2013 Sustainability Summit at the Greenbrier Resort in White Sulpher Springs. WV, October 8-10. The theme of the Summit is: Sustainability and Shareholder Value; Essential Commitments for Tomorrow. This Summit examines corporate sustainability challenges, practices and potential solutions within four key industries: oil and gas, mining, chemical and heavy machinery.
Greenbrier Resort in White Sulpher Springs, WV.
Today Margie Flynn, principal of the sustainability consulting firm BrownFlynn, and I constituted a two person panel on mining and sustainability. We used an open forum to discuss the challenges that the mining industry faces in terms of sustainable development and community involvement. The session was titled "Good neighbor policies." I gave examples of how domestic and international mining companies take different approaches to engage the local communities efforts to obtain their "social license to operate."
I used Newmont Mining Corp's gold operation in Ghana as an example of a company that applied the concept of "beginning with the end in mind" as they planned their legacy in the local community after the mine eventually closes. Newmont has trained the local workers on sustainable agriculture, taught them management skills to apply to starting small businesses, increased awareness of the need to protect water resources and public health, established a vocational school to teach citizens a skill, and more.
Since this Sustainability Summit is sponsored by the Boy Scouts, I used this opportunity to showcase the new Mining in Society merit badge that SME has worked for over 10 years with the BSA to implement. This badge will be launched at the 2014 SME Annual Meeting & Exhibit in February.