Making it Real: Theory and Practice of Stewardship in the Nickel Value Chain
October 30, 2007 -- Following, is the entire content of a presentation made
by Bruce McKean, Director, Sustainability, Nickel Institute at a Sustainable Development Conference in
Cairns, Queensland, Australia.
What is Stewardship?
Stewardship is one of those words subject to interpretation. It can be a modest or an ambitious word. For
the Nickel Institute, it was a discovery to realize that it had been doing “stewardship” since it began in
1980 (Nickel Producers Environmental Research Association) and 1984 (Nickel Development Institute):
• Occupational health: Doing basic science on human health effects of exposure to nickel and nickel compounds
and publishing in peer-reviewed journals;
• Sustainability: Doing basic research and providing data relevant to measures of sustainability:, nickel
recycling, socio-economic data, “stocks and flows”, and future contributions in life cycle, carbon
accounting, sharing of good practice, etc.
• Process, manufacturing and fabrication: Providing technical papers and free publications (at its peak,
approximately 100,000 copies per year of about 150 different titles) and free technical support (at its peak,
thousands per year provided by about 100 consultants around the world) to material specifiers, engineers,
designers, architects, metal finishing industry, casting industry, welders. Wherever nickel or
nickel-containing material was used, there was practical, competent, neutral advice on how to use it well,
use it safely.
• Consumer products: Providing advice to consumers on nickel-containing products and, as appropriate,
communicating with designers, manufacturers and retailers concerning nickel allergic contact dermatitis
(NACD) and other possible concerns related to products as diverse as stents and kettles.
Collectively the work of the Institute may not include every possible aspect of stewardship (see below) but within its mandate the Nickel Institute is, above all, an institution focused on stewardship. It concerns itself with
• occupational and environmental health impacts associated with production;
• human and environmental impacts associated with use and end-of-life management;
• finding appropriate roles for nickel consistent with the sustainability objectives of society;
• ensuring the safe and efficient use of nickel-containing materials;
• helping to increase supply for “future generations” by promoting the re-use and recycling of materials;
and
• promoting and supporting the sharing of good practice throughout the value chain.
This can be fairly considered to be operating at the “ambitious” end of the range of metals industry stewardship possibilities.
Recent developments – to be touched upon later – have formalized past practice as policy and will become even more influential in how we interact with the nickel value chain, stakeholders and society as a whole.
Why do stewardship?
There are two main motivators. The easiest to start with is “it’s the right thing to do”: a combination of internal culture and rising expectations of society drive this. That doesn’t sound overtly businesslike and certainly it’s hard to put a metric on. It is reasonable, however, to suggest that neutrally-practiced stewardship – informed, objective, transparent – will, over time, allow a reputation to develop that raises the comfort level of the value chain regarding the material they use. And that confidence can be reflected in the minds of their designers, engineers and salespeople. It won’t guarantee immunity from controversy but makes it more likely that the value chain will keep an open mind or even speak up in defence of the material when it’s being questioned.
Another aspect of “the right thing” is morale. People welcome being stewards. Employees can be motivated and enthusiastic because they are sharing knowledge, protecting worker health, helping others arrive at appropriate material selections that will avoid catastrophic failure of structures or plant processes. Again, meaningful metrics are absent. We would suggest, however, that you will know it when you see it. Certainly our colleagues of the Nickel Institute all know that they are part of a stewardship culture and they reckon it to be a very positive aspect of their work.
The second motivator is more easily linked to success in business and the marketplace: reputation. If the material is well understood and well used, it will have a good reputation. If the industry that produces the material is responsible for its material being well understood and well used, it will have a good reputation. In such an environment, positive news about the material is easily accepted; negative news is greeted with reservations. This is money in the bank.
And while we suggested that there were two motivators – one based in ethics and one based in marketing – the two clearly inter-relate and reinforce each other.
Lest this sound too positive, let’s note as well that as soon as an industry knows something but chooses not to do anything about it, as soon as a material is given a marketing push into an area for which it isn’t suited, cynicism will replace confidence far quicker than the confidence was gained in the first place. That cynicism will be found both in the employees and in the value chain.
What kinds of stewardship?
The kinds of stewardship are common to all metals and relate to the different life cycle stages starting with:
Resource (in ground) stewardship: Understanding the resource, defining the deposit, planning for optimal exploitation, achieving optimal exploitation and recovery, ensuring appropriate closure and rehabilitation. This has not been part of the remit of the Nickel Institute and typically is exercised by the owner of the resource. Indeed, the word “stewardship” that we use so commonly today has its origins here when landowners were judged to be good (or poor) “stewards of the land” they owned or controlled…and their reputation among their peers and the general populace was affected accordingly.
Process stewardship: Understanding and managing the hazards – to the environment, to workers, to surrounding communities – and sharing knowledge and good practice. Much of this competence can and should be shared actively with the value chain when similar processes or occupational exposures arise. The producing industry – the industry that bears the name of the product – will know more about such good practices because the metal or mineral is the main business whereas the metal or material will be only one of many chemicals the value chain has to manage.
There is an additional element with overt commercial implications: those who best master and manage the processes they use will achieve the greatest efficiencies: greater recoveries, fewer losses, less energy per unit of production. This aspect, understandably, is beyond the remit of the Nickel Institute. It is the domain of individual companies – or individual plants within a corporation – as they seek to improve their place on the cost curve.
Material stewardship: It is in the interest of the metal or mineral producer to ensure that its product is being used “appropriately”. What can this mean? For nickel, the combination of nickel with different elements can provide a startling range of attributes and performance parameters. If those attributes and performance characteristics are abused or exceeded, there can be catastrophic failures leading to loss of life and property and direct consequences for the environment. From a sustainability perspective too, over-specification of nickel or nickel-containing materials may avoid premature failure but will increase the resource intensity of any product or utility, something that is inconsistent with good stewardship of a finite resource. The Nickel Development Institute was created to address these concerns and this responsibility continues to be discharged by its successor organization, the Nickel Institute.
Product stewardship: For nickel, product stewardship is largely defined by how nickel is used in consumer products as nickel is one of a number of metals that have properties that are hazardous in the consumer use phase. Nickel Allergic Contact Dermatitis (NACD) is a prominent element of the Nickel Institute stewardship activity. There will be more on this later.
Resource (life cycle) stewardship: Nickel and metals are a finite resource. But to the extent that the metals can be identified, collected, segregated and recycled, metals can be considered as “renewable”. For this reason, primary metal producers have an interest in adding to the understanding of the flows of materials through society and what their final fate will be…and if that final fate is dissipation, “discard to the environment” or land-filling, the sustainability credentials of the materials and the status of the industry that produces them will be compromised.
Organizing for stewardship
How any commodity organizes to discharge its self-defined stewardship responsibilities will depend on the
ambition of the industry and the attributes of the deposits, processes and life-cycle applications of its
products. At the Nickel Institute stewardship is an organic thing: it starts with the attitudes and
understandings of the individual employees of the Institute, supported and sustained by the support –
financial and political – of its member companies. That said, there are structures and policies in place or
being developed:
- Sustainability Charter: Board-level commitment to sustainability that includes stewardship (see Annex);
- “A Step Further”: a commitment flowing from the Sustainability Charter that commits the Institute to go
beyond mere compliance;
- Good Practices Forum: a way of realizing process stewardship among primary producers;
- Nickel Clearinghouse: a way of realizing process stewardship through the value chain; and
- financial and human resources are dedicated to stewardship.
With an organizational framework and resources, and with the ambition to cover the entire life cycle of its products, the Nickel Institute maintains and seeks to expand its relationships with different end-use sectors (stainless steel, alloys, catalysts, batteries, chemicals and surface finishing, castings, etc.) and different end-use communities (transportation, architecture and infrastructure, consumer products, chemical and processing industries, food processing and handling, etc.). There are long-standing cooperative relationships in place but also a number of notable weaknesses, especially in certain geographic areas of high or growing nickel use. Sustaining our efforts and addressing shortfalls adds up to a significant undertaking for the Nickel Institute but within the context of the overall nickel industry, the resource commitment is modest and, in a word, sustainable.
Stewardship in practice
Process stewardship: How operators manage to increase recoveries or reduce energy use is of obvious commercial interest. With that caveat, however, the member companies of the Nickel Institute have found it possible to share ideas and results of innovative practices with their peers. Areas of worker safety, worker training, medical surveillance and record keeping, tailings management, water conservation: these are fruitful areas for exchange of information and it is done regularly. Starting in 2008, this practice will be formalized as the “Good Practice Forum” within a web-based knowledge exchange network (“Nickel Clearinghouse”) built and operated by the Nickel Institute. Although less common, process stewardship outreach can include the value chain when users of nickel have occupational environments similar to what the nickel industry itself encounters. For instance, airborne soluble nickel compounds are of concern to the metal finishing industry as well as any nickel producer that has a tank house.
Material stewardship: Material stewardship has been at the heart of Nickel Institute activities since its foundation. Publications, research, workshops, conference papers, web-based training elements: all have been utilized to increase the understanding of nickel and nickel-containing materials. This is also where our roster of consultants with extensive practical industry knowledge will provide, without cost to the inquirer, unbiased advice on material selection, fabrication techniques, and advice on process operation. While the common element is nickel, the scope of the material stewardship is very broad: oil and gas, pulp and paper, transportation, architectural, metal finishing, welding: wherever and however nickel is used.
Product stewardship: Nickel has one irritating property: it can cause itching. For some individuals, the consequences of gaining an allergy to nickel (because of prolonged contact of nickel with the skin: jewellery) can be far from trivial. For that reason, the use of nickel in consumer products has been and continues to be a high profile activity for the Nickel Institute. Originating from a consumer complaint, published research or its own research, the Nickel Institute communicates with manufacturers and retailers of nickel-containing consumer products where the use of that nickel may be putting the user of that product at risk. The objectives are to educate the manufacturer or retailer (if they were not aware of the hazard) and work with them to find the appropriate design change that would reduce or remove the hazard.
Resource (life cycle) stewardship: It is not enough to be efficient, profitable and environmentally
responsible producers of nickel. The views of society about the importance of nickel to their quality of life
and, more and more, the relevance of nickel (or any other material) to their vision of a future, more
sustainable, society, will be influenced greatly by what happens over the full life cycle of nickel. Mining,
the first step, has understandably and for many years been the focus of attention. That focus has broadened,
however, and what happens at the end of the life of materials and products is increasingly important. If
nickel or any material requires significant environmental inputs to produce – as is the case for nickel – and
if that material ends up in a landfill after a single use, questions will be asked. For that reason, the
Nickel Institute is making significant investments in data gathering and research:
• Life cycle inventory: cradle to gate of primary nickel products (Ecobilan, 2001)
• First-ever description of end-of-life management of nickel products (in-house, 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, carbon footprint
Observations on the practice of stewardship
Stewardship is a motivator. It’s a positive force that can encourage individuals and corporations to act in ways different than they would otherwise.
Stewardship can make or save your reputation, or perhaps even salvage your reputation over time in the wake of a negative lapse in stewardship.
“Doing the right thing” is not cost-free but it can also save or earn money. The “doing well by doing good” phrase can be oversold. Not all stewardship initiatives will positively affect the bottom line but at the same time there is ample proof that many of them will. More realistically, a number of projects will be “win/win” in that something undertaken to reduce the use, for instance, of an expensive input also has a positive consequence for the overall stewardship performance of the operation. In a more abstract measure, the exercise of stewardship – especially beyond the plant gate – can provide evidence of “duty of care” by the company and lessen any likelihood that liability related to a downstream process or product will be extended to include the original producer of the material. This is relevant to nickel when one considers product liability and the ability of nickel to cause allergic reactions.
Stewardship can be fiercely resisted. The nickel value chain uses nickel for a reason. When that reason is aesthetics or to achieve a certain (low) price point for a product, the potential for poor stewardship on the part of the value chain arises. When the nickel industry approaches the manufacturer with a concern, a common reaction is hostility and denial. The idea that an industry (from the mining industry!) is exercising stewardship and is really trying to assist the manufacturer can be a hard one to accept. And if the manufacturer does agree to make a design or material change, does that amount to an admission of error in the first place? And is there liability attached to that alleged error? And what about the cost of making those changes? And will a reformulated product push the manufacturer’s product up into a different price range? And besides, my competitors are still using nickel so why pick on me?
Whether the product is cheap nickel-plated jewellery, musical instruments, heating element for kettles, or certain nickel-containing white gold alloys – to name recent examples – the level of angst can be high. In other cases – mobile phones, intravenous catheter parts – manufacturers have been responsive and even grateful that the nickel industry was an active steward.
The leverage available to the nickel industry in the exercise of stewardship is very limited: usually the manufacturer in question does not buy directly from the nickel industry and even if it did, the nickel industry cannot refuse to sell its product. The most productive approach is non-confrontational. Describe the observed problem, provide a science-based explanation of the probable source of the problem, and offer to work with the manufacturer (or retailer, in some cases) to effect a change that does not disturb the market, raise questions of liability or fault (and should in fact make such issues less likely to arise), and achieves the stewardship objective of the nickel industry.
All of us, and all of the organizations for which we work, practice stewardship to one degree or another – in occupational health, for the environment, for the community, for the processes and products associated with nickel, and even of shareholders investments.
At the Nickel Institute we have recognized the importance of stewardship to the long-term health of our industry and, to a degree that we think unusual to an industry association, made stewardship – and its senior partner, sustainability – the overarching organizing principle of our work.
We are, in fact, going a step further.
Nickel Institute Sustainability Charter
The Nickel Institute and its Members:
• seek ways to drive responsible standards in good practice in all aspects of worker safety, health, training and the environment: we collectively and individually engage with the downstream user industries in the adoption and implementation of good practices in this respect;
• strive to provide users with easily accessible and understandable technically up-to-date information and training packages on the safe use of nickel products;
• promote sharing and adoption of good practice throughout the nickel industry across all aspects of our ‘A Step Further’ programme through our Good Practice Forum;
• seek to reduce any potential harm across the full lifecycle of the product through Nickel Stewardship;
• through our Nickel Stewardship Clearinghouse, actively engage with the user value chain to share latest knowledge and encourage the safe and responsible use and disposal of nickel containing products throughout their lifecycle.
Our ‘A Step Further’ programme drives:
• protection of worker safety and health within the nickel industry;
• promotion of awareness and responsible practices in relation to nickel and its applications in downstream user industries;
• the safe handling, use, reuse and disposal of nickel-containing products throughout their lifecycle;
• protection of the environment.
This is achieved through continuous improvement measures at operating facilities and research programmes of
the Nickel Institute aimed at developing knowledge.
(Last revised 30 August 2007)
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Bruce McKean
Director, Sustainability
Nickel Institute
55 University Avenue, Suite 1801
Toronto, Ontario, M5J 2H7
CANADA
Phone: + 1 416 591 7999
Fax: + 1 416 591 7987
Mobile: + 1 416 301 6039
E-mail: bmckean@nickelinstitute.org
