Sustainability Takes Centre Stage

Nickel Magazine, December 2007 -- Ever-focused on the long-term health of the nickel industry, the Nickel Institute has made stewardship and sustainability its two overarching principles.

That message was delivered by Bruce McKean, Director, Sustainability & Stewardship, of the Nickel Institute, at the Sustainable Development Conference in Cairns, Queensland, Australia. The Mineral Council of Australia organized the event, which ran from October 29 to November 2.

McKean described various types of stewardship in the metals industry and how the Nickel Institute practises stewardship today.

“Recent developments have formalized past practice as policy of the Nickel Institute, and this policy will become even more influential in how we interact with the nickel value chain, stakeholders and society as a whole,” McKean said.

Among the components of the policy are:

• A Sustainability Charter, which is a board-level commitment to sustainability that includes stewardship;
• “A Step Further” -- a commitment flowing from the Sustainability Charter that commits the Nickel Institute to go beyond mere compliance;
• Good Practices Forum -- to help primary producers exchange process stewardship information;
• Nickel Stewardship Clearinghouse -- a way of realizing process stewardship through the value chain; and
• Financial and human resources dedicated to stewardship.

The 20 member companies of the Nickel Institute regularly share ideas and results of innovative practices with their peers. These practices typically involve worker safety, worker training, medical surveillance and record keeping, tailings management, and water conservation.

Starting in 2008, information will be exchanged as part of the “Good Practice Forum” within a web-based network. The Nickel Institute will build and operate the network, which will be called the “Nickel Stewardship Clearinghouse.”

In the area of resources (life-cycle) stewardship, the Nickel Institute is investing heavily in data gathering and research. This investment includes:

• Life cycle inventory (LCI): cradle to gate of primary nickel products (Ecobilan, 2001);
• First-ever description of end-of-life management of nickel products (Nickel Institute, 2001);
• Socio-economic analysis of the European Union (Weinberg Group, 2004);
• Stocks and Flows Analysis (Yale University, 2006);
• Future scheduled projects: improved and expanded LCI, global socio-economic study, dissipative uses study, several end-of-life and recycling studies and a carbon footprint study.

The two organizations that formed the Nickel Institute in 2004 had each promoted material stewardship since their formation in the 1980s, and the combined organization continues to do so.

Publications, research, workshops, conference papers and web-based training modules are all being used to expand our understanding of nickel and nickel-containing materials.

Consultants provide free, expert advice on material selection, fabrication techniques, and operation processes. While the common element is nickel, the scope of the material stewardship is broad and includes oil and gas, pulp and paper, transportation, architecture, metal finishing, welding -- wherever and however nickel is used.

Photo: Jamie Veeneman for Nickel Institute

Read the entire presentation here: "Making it Real: Theory and Practice of Stewardship in the Nickel Value Chain."  Bruce McKean Director Sustainability and Stewardship Nickel Institute 55 University Ave., Suite 1801 Toronto, Ontario Canada M5J 2H7 Tel: 1- 416-591-7999 Fax: 1- 416-591-7987 E-mail: bmckean@nickelinstitute.org Web site: www.nickelinstitute.org

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