What is sustainable development?

Sustainable development is commonly defined as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

While it cannot be achieved by one organisation on its own, we believe that our business can make an important contribution to the ongoing, global transition to sustainable development.

Our strategy of investing in large, long life mines and businesses means that we operate on extended time horizons. Some of our projects last 40 years or more from mineral discovery through to closure, representing large scale, long term investments in fixed capital, often situated in remote locations. 

These long term commitments provide opportunities for us to plan, implement and deliver sustainable contributions to social wellbeing, environmental stewardship and economic prosperity, within our strong governance systems.

The minerals and metals produced at our operations contribute to society’s needs, creating wealth to support community infrastructure, health care and education programmes, and delivering financial dividends for our shareholders. Our activities also provide the means and opportunity to develop new approaches to solving the world’s environmental and human development challenges, such as climate change and poverty.

We also recognise that, if not managed appropriately, some aspects of our activities have the ability to detract from sustainable development, such as options for the future use of water and land; amenity impacts on local communities; and greenhouse gas emissions from our operations and the use of our products

We work with all our stakeholders to understand the effects that we have on the world around us, and aim to run our business in a way that delivers year on year improvements in our performance.

Our strategy

We have developed and implemented a structured framework to ensure that we meet the goal of contributing to the global transition to sustainable development. This framework contains “must have” building blocks, which represent Rio Tinto’s high-level business drivers

At Rio Tinto, this approach begins with the policies articulated in The way we work, our statement of business practice. These policies are supported by strategies and standards which lay down the minimum acceptable requirements for behaviours or operating conditions, & by a range of leadership tools & accountabilities to ensure appropriate implementation across the Group. We monitor and report against our progress by using established indicators and performance metrics with a suite of Group wide goals and targets.

As a founding member of the International Council of Mining and Metals (ICMM), Rio Tinto has committed to implementing the ICMM Sustainable Development Framework. This framework includes a set of ten principles with supporting position statements, public reporting and independent assurance requirements.  Our management approach outline ensures our compliance with the ICMM Sustainable Development Framework requirements.

By communicating and raising awareness of our approach to our employees, we are embedding a sustainable development culture that touches every part of our organisation.

We use a materiality assessment to help us focus our sustainable development report on those issues that are most important to our internal and external stakeholders. Omission from the material issues covered in our report does not mean that the issue is not managed by the company.

Further details can be found in our Annual report, in these Sustainable development web pages and in our business unit's own sustainable development reports.

The business case for sustainable development

Our commitment to sustainable development has a sound business case that goes beyond safeguarding the health of the planet for future generations. We believe that it yields a range of long term benefits including:

• Better return for our shareholders.
• Improved management of risk.
• Reduction in our operating costs.
• More business opportunities.
• Attracting and retaining high calibre employees.
• Maintaining or improving the value and quality of our products with less impact on the environment.
• Better development and employment opportunities for and relations with local communities.
• Local and regional economic development that, over time, reduces operating costs.

These factors help differentiate us from our competitors and contribute to our goal of being the undisputed sector leader in maximising value for our stakeholders.