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Teck Resources

Teck Resources

Which of the 17 SDGs is your organization working towards and actively promoting?

Please describe the actions/objectives towards achieving the SDGs that you have selected above.

 Our sustainability strategy sets short-term goals to 2020 and long-term goals to 2030 in six focus: Community, Water, Our People, Biodiversity, Energy and Climate Change, and Air. Many of these goals are helping to contribute to our four focus SDGs.

SDG 3: Health and safety is a core value at Teck and protecting the health of our workforce is fundamental to our business practices and achieving long-term success. We ensure that all employees and contractors have the knowledge, training and ability to safely perform their duties and we manage occupational health and hygiene exposures for the protection of longer-term health.

Through our global Zinc & Health program, we work in partnership with international organizations to end preventable deaths of children under the age of five by ensuring that life-saving zinc treatments reach the children who need it most.

SDG 5: At Teck, we believe our workforce should reflect the diversity of the communities where we operate and that an inclusive and diverse workforce will ultimately strengthen our company. In 2016, we implemented an Inclusion and Diversity Policy to help build awareness and understanding of diversity across our company.

Our work for this goal includes improving recruitment practices, conducting employee training in gender awareness and advancing external partnerships to support women and Indigenous Peoples.

SDG 8: Teck’s operations create important and lasting benefits for individuals through competitive compensation, training, career development and, by extension, financial security for the families of our employees. Community investment is also a key commitment to our communities, where we aim to generate mutual benefits through supporting local development priorities.

Reaching agreements with Indigenous Peoples near our operations also creates a framework for greater cooperation. Agreements typically address consultation, environmental stewardship, employment, and business opportunities through the full range of our activities, from exploration through to closure.

SDG 13: Our long-term plan to reduce our energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is articulated through our Climate Action Strategy. This strategy outlines our current and potential future role in the global fight against climate change and how our industry faces both risks and opportunities in these efforts. The strategy is built around four pillars:

    1. Positioning Teck for the low-carbon economy with our diversified mix of products
    2. Reducing our carbon footprint
    3. Advocating for climate action, including broad-based, effective carbon pricing.
    4. Adapting to the physical impacts of climate change and increasing the resilience of our operations.

Please specify the impact of your organization’s actions on the SDGs that you have selected above.

SDG 3:  Our Courageous Safety Leadership (CSL) program challenges existing values, beliefs and attitudes toward safety, and builds commitment from individuals to foster safe practices at our operations. More than 16,000 employees and contractors have participated in the program and over the past five years, we have reduced our High-Potential Incident Frequency by 64%.

Teck’s Zinc & Health program is working to reduce zinc deficiency and save the lives of children around the world. As a result of our Zinc Alliance for Child Health (ZACH) partnership with the Government of Canada, UNICEF and the Micronutrient Initiative, more than 22 million children have received life-saving zinc treatments.

SDG 5: Since implementing our Inclusion and Diversity Policy, we are seeing many positive results. In 2017, women comprised 29% of total new hires at Teck, which is a very high level for the mining industry. Our Board is also now composed of 27% women, and last year, we conducted a gender pay equity review, which confirmed that there is no indication of any systemic gender pay issue at Teck.

We recently announced an extension of our partnership with UN Women for the development of a new training center to empower Indigenous women in northern Chile, funded through a US$1 million investment from Teck.

SDG 8: We contribute to the wealth and prosperity of the countries, regions and communities where we operate. In 2017, Teck distributed $10.3 billion in economic value, $7 billion in payments to suppliers, $1.5 billion paid to employees in wages and benefits, $1.6 billion in taxes and other payments to governments and $13.2 million in community investments. Through our relationships with Indigenous Peoples in areas near our operations, we have 54 active agreements in place, including 23 new agreements signed in 2017.

SDG 13: As of the end of 2017, we reduced our GHG emissions by 281 kilotonnes and our energy consumption by 2,132 terajoules since our 2011 baseline. As part of our 2030 renewable energy goal, we have implemented 30.7 MW of alternative energy generation, which has included a wind facility in Alberta, solar facility in B.C. and implementation of solar power as a primary energy source for our Quebrada Blanca Operations in northern Chile. In B.C., where seven of our operations are located, approximately 92% of grid electricity is clean and renewable energy, and is almost entirely generated from hydro.

Teck also advocates for broad-based carbon pricing, and currently, all of our steelmaking coal operations are covered by carbon pricing, as is half of our copper business and all of our metals refining business.

Does your organization engage in any partnerships to advance the SDGs?

SDG 3: In 2017, we were proud to join our partners in the Zinc Alliance for Child Health (ZACH) — the Government of Canada and Nutrition International — to announce a $4 million commitment to extend ZACH through 2020.

Our new Copper & Health program addresses the growing risk of healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs) in Canada. In 2017, we launched an antimicrobial copper study in four hospitals across Canada to build on the existing evidence base and help understand how to use copper to reduce HAI rates in hospitals.

SDG 5: In addition to Teck’s partnership with UN Women, Teck supports the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs, a non-profit society whose mission is to educate, energize and empower female entrepreneurs. Participants of the program have seen an average annualized revenue growth of over 40% in their business and 90% of all participating companies are still in business.

Teck is also a founding partner of the 25th Team, a network of Canadian women who have committed $6 million to advance UNICEF’s maternal and child health interventions and reduce preventable deaths.

SDG 8: As a member company of the International Council on Mining and Metals, Teck implements their 10 Principles for Sustainable Development, which includes the integration of sustainable development in corporate strategy and decision-making processes.

Teck also partners with the World Economic Forum (WEF), an international institution committed to improving the state of the world through public-private cooperation. WEF engages political, business, academic and other leaders of society in collaborative efforts to shape global, regional and industry agendas. In additional to ICMM and WEF, we partner with a number of international organizations to further community development around the world, including UNICEF, UN Women, Nutrition International, the Government of Canada, WE, and many others.

SDG 13: In 2016, we were proud to be the first Canadian natural resource company to join the World Bank’s Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition (CPLC). We are also a part of The Council for Clean Capitalism – a group of forward-thinking companies working together to ensure sufficient financing and transparency to smooth our transition to a low-carbon economy. See our memberships and partnerships webpage for a complete list of initiatives.

Additional Information

SDGs

SDG 3:

SDG 5:

SDG 8:

SDG 13: