Accurate and verifiable data provides a path to improving economics, optimizing resources, engaging stakeholders, and attracting talent.

Laurie M. Clark

With a warming planet and unpredictable extreme weather events, all business leaders are faced with increasing and more complex challenges, costs, and regulatory oversight. Having access to accurate and verifiable real-time information about business impacts and activities is quickly becoming a necessity in navigating budgeting and resourcing processes. Documenting and reporting are no longer viewed as a burden but as a way to identify gaps and economic opportunities to reduce expenses, optimize resource allocation, engage with stakeholders and improve the ability to attract talent.

As the Metals and Mining industry is critical for the global energy transition and at the root of all supply chains, having a cohesive way to map and track all relevant factors is a top priority.

Recently, top mining industry organizations (Mining Association of Canada, The Copper Mark, ICMM and the World Gold Council) posted for public comment on a new Consolidated Mining Standard (CMS) that covers 24 performance areas organized in four pillars – Ethical Business Practices, Worker and Social Safeguards, Social Performance and Environmental Stewardship.

The new CMS standard applies to individual facilities and corporate levels. It leverages other globally accepted standards, such as Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) S1 and S2, and European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS).

The intent behind having an in-depth transparent disclosure is for the mining industry to gain stakeholders' trust, namely that responsible mining can lead to long-term prosperity, and as such, the industry can attract capital investments.

Capital providers are also navigating an increasing number of sustainable investment regulations. There are currently 868 policies in 116 countries that are driving capital flow realignments. The vast majority (90%) of all asset owners agree that sustainable investment and ESG regulations have helped them meet their sustainable investment goals in 2024 and are overwhelmingly concerned about the investment impact of climate change.

As a result, the majority of these asset owners are increasing their resources to address ESG/sustainability regulations. Banks and insurance companies have also stepped up their due diligence and scrutiny of corporate clients in order to manage their lending portfolio risks and liability payouts.

Currently, the driving force behind the disclosure alignments is the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which, starting this year, requires all EU entities and certain non-EU companies to gather and disclose according to the ESRS.

The CSRD took effect from the beginning of 2024 for large public-interest companies with over 500 employees, with the first reports to be issued in 2025, followed by companies with more than 250 employees, or 50 million Euro in revenue in the following year, and listed small and medium enterprises (SMEs) one year later.

Within a few years, we will have more than 50,000 companies aggregating and disclosing their sustainability information in accordance with the ESRS, which requires auditable, detailed information that is not only company-specific but also includes the entire upstream and downstream value chain.

This inevitably will also impact global supply chains with smaller and privately-owned businesses all the way to the mining sites where the raw materials start their journey.

At Onyen, our philosophy is to make sustainability reporting easy so that the time and effort of management teams can be focused on managing business outcomes and risks. We have already aligned all standards and can help businesses navigate reporting requirements leveraging our proprietary technology. For further information, please contact us.

Onyen Corporation is a compliance, risk, and sustainability management reporting software-as-a-service (EMSaaS) provider. Across the globe, Onyen helps small, medium and large companies in financial, investment, chemical, mining and metals, oil and gas, industrial/manufacturing and big-box retail, government, healthcare, consumer services, pharmaceuticals, agribusiness, and educational facilities identify and measure corporate impacts, including emissions, while simplifying sustainability and carbon reporting with the ultimate result of gaining access to capital.

Author Bio

Laurie M. Clark is an entrepreneur, author and speaker who has founded and sold three companies, and is founder/principle of three financial and regulatory technology companies: a financial advisor credentialing system; an AI-driven AML and terrorist finance entity-checking system; and a real-time ESG reporting system with predictive modelling to manage risks and outcomes. She advises on capital raises for private and public companies, and is a two-time Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada.