Sustainability
We are firmly committed to supporting sustainability by meeting our high standards for environmental stewardship and the protection of the safety, health and wellbeing of our employees and communities; by forging meaningful and valued relationships with communities, governments and partners where we operate; and by ensuring sustainable development is integrated into all aspects of our business.
The foundation of our approach to sustainability is our core values of Responsibility, Integrity and Accountability. These values and their underlying principles define how we operate, collaborate, engage and unite in our work and compel us to ensure our business goals, objectives and decisions are aligned with our sustainability aims.
We know that instilling these values and fostering a culture of sustainability within our expanding workforce, suppliers and partners requires tremendous dedication and a commitment to continuous improvement at every level. Every day, we are making progress to go beyond compliance with laws and regulations to institute best practice policies, frameworks, standards and procedures that are informed by international standards, guidelines and initiatives and fundamental to the success of our business.
See our Sustainability Policy to learn more about our commitments to the environment, our employees and suppliers, our communities and our investors.
Find out more about the core pillars of our approach to sustainability below:
As an important step towards transparently reporting on our sustainability performance, please see our Annual Reports for more information on our performance on material Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) matters and our recent efforts to progressively integrate sustainability within our business and its governance.
Our Commitments to Critical, Cross-cutting Priorities
We recognize that our contributions to the wellbeing of the planet and its people require firm commitments to take action on a number of critical issues. Among them:
Human Rights:
We believe in the inherent dignity, equal value and entitlement of every human being to the same human rights without discrimination. Yet, in different contexts, countries and communities where we work, we realize that human rights are often not equally enjoyed by all with factors such as gender, race, origin, age, disability or other status. As a company and as individuals, we have a responsibility to develop an organizational culture which supports internationally recognized human rights and seeks to avoid complicity in human rights abuses.
Human rights are woven throughout our core values and principles, embedded within our Code of Ethics and Business Conduct and are progressively being integrated within our standards, procedures and practices, including through in-house learning at all levels.
See our Human Rights Policy for more information.
Climate Change:
Climate change poses an unparalleled challenge that calls for deliberate and substantive action. Our role as future producers of materials essential to the low-carbon transition is only one piece of the puzzle. Among our efforts to translate our commitment to the Paris Agreement into action, Jervois is currently developing a strategy to support a low carbon footprint, increase our resilience to climate risks and optimize opportunities to address climate change through our workforce, suppliers, communities, stakeholders and partners.
Responsible Supply Chains:
Our business relationships with suppliers, customers and partners are essential in ensuring that our supply chains are socially and environmentally responsible, ethical and ultimately support broader sustainability goals.
Among areas of progress, our Supplier Standard outlines our minimum expectations for ethical business conduct, human rights, safety and health, and environmental and social practices with specific requirements for suppliers of mineral raw materials. As we move towards mineral production and sourcing, we are rapidly instituting comprehensive due diligence processes in accordance with the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Mineral Supply Chains, OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
Health & Safety
Work safely – all the time.
We believe passionately that everyone at Jervois should experience a safe and healthy workplace. We proactively identify and manage risk, conduct ourselves responsibly, exercise good judgment and take responsibility for our actions. We are committed to the highest standards of health and safety.
We put these principles into practice through consistent, accountable leadership, robust best practice standards and procedures and by ensuring that every worker is provided with the resources, knowledge, skills and individual responsibility needed to work safely every day.
Learn more about our health and safety performance in our Annual Reports.
Environment
We care for our environment, ourselves, our coworkers, our families, and host communities. We are responsible citizens, as a company and as individuals. We are stewards of our environment and active in our communities. These principles are the foundation of our commitment to excellence in environmental stewardship.
To translate these principles into practice, we take deliberate action to responsibly, safely and efficiently manage our carbon footprint and all water, tailings and other waste and materials. We also purposefully act to minimize impacts on biodiversity, land, air, water and human beings; and responsibly reclaim, rehabilitate and restore ecosystems.
A growing priority for Jervois involves working in partnership to continuously improve our environmental outcomes. You can learn about our recent collaboration with the Idaho Conservation League (ICL) to support the conservation and biodiversity priorities of communities around our Idaho Cobalt Operations (ICO) below.
Prioritizing Conservation and Biodiversity in the Upper Salmon River Basin
In February 2021, Jervois’ ICO mine formalized its collaboration with the Idaho Conservation League to establish the Upper Salmon Conservation Action Program (“USCAP”).
The USCAP was created to support protection and restoration of fish and wildlife habitats including water quality, and biodiversity within the Upper Salmon River Basin.
Following the first request for proposals, in June 2021 the USCAP funding committee selected three proposals from a competitive pool of applicants:
- The Lemhi Soil and Water Conservation District received US$85,000 to move a problematic diversion on the Lemhi River to advance restoration of a critical habitat for juvenile Chinook salmon and steelhead.
- White Clouds Preserve received US$35,000 to conduct riparian restoration work. The grant will be implemented in collaboration with the Shoeshone-Bannock tribes and local native plant experts to monitor and restore critical salmon and steelhead populations along the East Fork, near its confluence with the Main Salmon River.
- The Western Rivers Conservancy received US$30,000 to assist with acquiring a key parcel of land along Panther Creek, a major tributary of the Salmon River. This action is an important step in the recovery of spawning and rearing habitat for endangered fish.
Jervois will contribute US$150,000 annually to USCAP throughout the operational life of ICO in Lemhi County, Idaho, USA.
Governance
We operate within the letter and spirit of the law. We honour our commitments and are accountable for what we do, what we achieve and how we achieve it. We inspire personal dedication, commitment and create a high-performance culture. We proactively identify and manage risks and opportunities. We measure, own, and deliver results. We conduct our business with integrity and transparency.
These are just a few of the core principles that underpin our approach to governance. Good governance ensures we create, sustain and deliver value in the short, medium and long-term in line with our ethics, values and principles and the interests of our business and stakeholders.
We aim for continuous improvement by cultivating good governance and ethical business conduct at all levels. At the highest level, oversight of and direction to health, safety and ESG are integrated within roles and functions of the Board. Together with our other executive management committees, our ESG and Compliance Committee is taking steps to ensure that health, safety and ESG matters, including related risks and opportunities, are systematically identified, assessed, managed, monitored and transparently reported. This is supported by our policies, codes, charters and standards that formalize ESG roles and responsibilities from the Board through to our project levels and provide the foundation for implementation and accountability.
Ethics and compliance
We expect all Jervois management, employees, contractors and other suppliers to work with ethics, integrity and accountability for their actions and fully comply with all national laws, our standards and codes. Our Code of Ethics and Business Conduct (“the Code”) provides specific direction and guidance to all Jervois personnel with respect to their responsibilities, conduct and behaviours.
Among other topics, the Code outlines our expectations with respect to:
- Anti-corruption and anti-bribery
- Anti-discrimination, harassment, intimidation and other acts of violence
- Diversity and inclusion
- Conflicts of interest
- Related party transactions
- Fair dealings with others
- Insider trading
- Trade restrictions
- Intellectual property rights
Please see the full Code of Ethics and Business Conduct here.
Our Suppliers
We similarly expect that our Suppliers of goods and services to behave ethically, with honesty and integrity and in full compliance with all applicable laws, regulations and rules in the locations where they are working. Our Suppliers are also bound by our Code of Ethics and Business Conduct and our Supplier Standard, which provides more specific guidance on our social, human rights, environmental, health, safety and other expectations.
Through our due diligence processes, we screen and monitor our Suppliers for compliance and take corrective or disciplinary actions accordingly.
What to do if you witness or suspect a violation
If any employee believes that someone is or may be violating our Code of Ethics and Business Conduct and/or the law, we expect them to report it immediately to their manager, supervisor or Human Resources. Employees, community members, suppliers and other stakeholders are also requested to report ethical and legal concerns and possible violations of our Code through our operations-level feedback mechanisms or our Whistleblower Mechanism. No reprisal or retaliatory action will be taken against any employee for raising concerns about such violations and all have an option to report anonymously.
Social
People are our most important resource. We treat others and ourselves with dignity and respect. We create a diverse, inclusive and supportive work environment and opportunities for personal growth and development. We work towards creating positive economic and social outcomes in communities where we operate.
These principles provide the foundation for our efforts to develop and sustain valued, meaningful relationships with our workforce, host communities, suppliers, partners and other stakeholders.
Our social responsibility commitments and internal systems, procedures and programs are ramping up commensurate with our phases of development. We believe that in order to support a healthy, motivated and productive workforce and maintain our social licence to operate, we must align our actions with our commitments to human rights, responsible supply chains and IFC Performance Standards, among other international standards and initiatives.