How Mining Companies Fare in the CSR Rankings

This is the final piece in a three-part series on CSR in the mining industry.  Earlier this week, I summarized what the multi-stakeholder group behind the Global Reporting Initiative's Mining and Metals Sector Guidelines had to say about what constitutes a socially responsible mining company. I then moved on to explore several different standards for responsible mining.

But with all these initiatives in place, how do companies engaged in mining fare in the types of CSR rankings we've explored so far?  Here is a brief summary of relevant rankings winners:

Three Rankings: Alcoa makes the grade in three rankings (despite being member of none of the three industry-specific mining standards we have explored);

Two Rankings: Lonmin, Newmont, and Norsk Hydro qualify for two; and

One Rankings: Anglo American, Barrick, BHP Billiton, Freeport-McMoRan, GoldCorp, Rio Tinto, and Walmart are recognized by only one list.

Interestingly, of these eleven companies, nine are U.N. Global Compact members, and the remaining two (Freeport-McMoRan and Walmart) are the only ranking winners to be recognized exclusively by the CRO (Do Global Compact members have difficulty in the CSR rankings? That is perhaps a subject for a future post!).   Also, Walmart is the only of the eleven companies not subscribing to any of the four initiatives I have profiled. Finally, notice that Ethisphere is the only of the five rankings to not recognize ANY companies engaged in mining.

I will stop there and let you draw your own conclusions about the relationship between standards for responsible mining and CSR rankings.  As usual, your observations would be welcome.