ÌÇÐÄvlogÈë¿Ú

Sustainability reporting

Sustainability reporting

2023

The Sustainability Fact Book outlines our key non-financial performance information for financial year 2023. It accompanies our 2023 sustainability disclosures and forms part of our reporting suite.

Sustainability Fact Book 2023
XLSX
2.1 MB
Sustainability Glossary (published 2022)
PDF
554 KB
Conflict Minerals Disclosure 2023
PDF
133 KB

2023 performance against our environmental, social and governance (ESG) targets

Targets
2023 performance

Reach zero fatalities and eliminate workplace injuries and catastrophic events.

Zero fatalities at managed operations (2022: 0 fatalities)

  • All-injury frequency rate (AIFR) at 0.37 (target: 0.40) (2022: 0.40)
  • 1.53 million critical risk management (CRM) verifications (2022: 1.37m)

Have all of our businesses identify at least one critical health hazard material to their business and demonstrate a year-on-year reduction of exposure to that hazard.

6 assets achieved an exposure reduction to known health risks (airborne contaminants and noise) (2022: 9 assets)

Reduce the rate of new occupational illnesses each year.

27.15% increase in the rate of new occupational illnesses since 2022

Reduce our absolute Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 15% by 2025 and by 50% by 2030 (when compared to 2018 levels), and achieve net zero emissions from our operations by 20501.

5.5% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions below our 2018 baseline (2022: 5.2%)

Disclose permitted surface water allocation volumes, annual allocation usage and the estimated surface water allocation catchment runoff from average annual rainfall for all managed operations by 2023.

Achieve local water stewardship targets for selected sites by 2023.

5 of the 7 water stewardship targets attained by 2023 (2022: 5 of 7)

Achieve our global Communities and Social Performance (CSP) targets by 2026:

  • Year-on-year increase in contestable spend sourced from suppliers local² to our operations.
  • All sites to co-manage cultural heritage with communities and knowledge holders by 2026.
  • 70% of total social investment to be made through strategic, outcomes-focused partnerships by 2026.
  • All employees in high risk human rights roles to complete job-specific human rights training by 2024.
  • All employees to complete general human rights training by 2026.
  • We sourced 16.8% of contestable spend from suppliers local to our operations. This was a 2.3% increase from 2022.
  • We independently assessed 25 assets against the cultural heritage co-management maturity framework with 8 assets performing at level 4 (integrated), 7 at level 3 (defined), 9 at level 2 (emerging) and 1 at level 1 (learning)3.
  • Outcome indicator framework and strategic partnering principles were developed and endorsed in 2023 with self-assessment and baseline data to be collected in 2024.
  • Our human rights team delivered 35 tailored training sessions, targeting 11 assets and 12 functional teams globally. We recorded 2,441 completions of our modern slavery e-learning module, representing 66% of employees and contractors4 in modern slavery high-risk roles.

Improve diversity5 in our business by:

  • Increasing women in the business (including in senior leadership6) each year.
  • Aiming for 50% women in our graduate intake.
  • Aiming for 30% of our graduate intake to be from places where we are developing new businesses.
  • 24.3% of our workforce were women, up 1.4% from 2022.
  • 25% of executive leaders were women, no change from 2022.
  • 30.1% of senior leadership were women, up 1.8% from 2022.
  • 30.8% of Board roles were held by women, up 0.8% from 2022.
  • 51.6% of our graduate intake were women, down 1.6% from 2022.
  • 37.6% of our graduate intake were from places where we are developing new businesses7, up 1.6% from 2022.

Improve our employee engagement and satisfaction.

1 point increase in our employee satisfaction score (eSAT8) since 2022 (from 73 to 74) (2022: 2 point increase)

  • Footnotes

    1 While we expect to have made financial commitments to abatement projects totalling more than 15% of our emissions by 2025, achieved emissions reductions will lag this.

    2 We take a “site-centric” view of the definition of local, which allows operations to establish their own definition, based on a set of common principles. These principles require that each operation, in defining “local” takes into consideration its geographic, social and economic area of impact as well as ownership. For example, suppliers located within the Pilbara region of Western Australia are defined as “local” for ÌÇÐÄvlogÈë¿ÚIron Ore’s Pilbara Operations. This approach is consistent with international best practice and aligns with the ICMM Social and Economic Reporting Framework guidance.

    3 The cultural heritage co-management maturity framework sets out a maturity model consisting of five levels of maturity – from "learning the practice" to "leading practice". There are six categories against which a site will be evaluated to determine its level of maturity, covering various aspects of cultural heritage management.

    4 Contractors refers to category 1, 2 and 3 contractors.

    5 From 2021, the definition used to calculate diversity was changed to include people not available for work, and contractors (those engaged on temporary contracts to provide services under the direction of ÌÇÐÄvlogÈë¿Úleaders), excluding project contractors.

    6 We define senior leadership as Managing Directors, General Managers, Group Advisers and Chief Advisors.

    7 Identifying with a nationality is not mandatory. More than 48% of our graduates have not formally reported a nationality.

    8 eSAT (Employee Satisfaction) is a measure of “how happy an employee is to work at Rio Tinto”. It is calculated by averaging the responses on a 1–7 scale and expressing this out of 100.

Year-on-year performance charts

Our interactive charts provide current and historical data relating to our performance across topics including health and safety, climate change, environment, communities, human rights, responsible sourcing and transparency.

Find out more about our 2023 performance for:

Our ESG framework

We want to ensure all our stakeholders benefit from the success of our business. To do this, our priorities and performance must align with society’s expectations, which are constantly evolving.

Each year we complete a materiality assessment to understand what ESG issues and topics matter most to, and have the greatest impact on, our stakeholders and our business. Our ESG framework describes how we manage and report externally on these issues and how we contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).

ESG framework
Our ESG framework

To achieve impeccable ESG credentials, we aim to:

Provide people and communities with social and economic opportunities so they can live and grow sustainably

Play our role to advance a fair and socially inclusive energy transition

Build a healthy, diverse and inclusive workforce, support local communities to achieve their goals and aspirations, and deliver positive social outcomes

Decarbonise our operations (Scope 1 and 2) and our value chains (Scope 3) and maximise the full value of our resources

Encourage circularity and provide critical minerals that the world needs to advance

Minimise environmental and heritage impacts and act as a responsible steward of water and biodiversity, to strengthen our resilience to a changing environment

  • What is important now and what will be in the future

    We gather information from stakeholders via interviews, surveys and reviews of publicly available information to understand what they think is important now and what they think will be in five to ten years time. Some issues are identified as higher materiality than others.

    What is important now

    Our internal and external stakeholders are broadly aligned on the four highly material ESG topics. Climate change is the most important topic and includes greenhouse gas emissions reduction, climate resilience and adaptation, and just transition. Respecting human rights; cultural and heritage site management; and health, safety and wellbeing are the other three highly material topics.

    For our business, the safety and wellbeing of our people remains our highest priority. Biodiversity and ecosystems; business integrity and governance; ESG transparency and disclosure; inclusion, diversity and equity; local community relations, tailings and mineral waste management; and water management are also material topics as we strive to build a sustainable business.

    What will be important in the future

    Our internal and external stakeholders feel that climate change will only continue to increase in importance over the next decade. Biodiversity and ecosystems; the impact of technology; respecting human rights; risk management and cybersecurity; business integrity and governance; supply chain transparency; and end-to-end materials management will also increase in importance.

    Water management will continue to be an extremely important topic in the future due to the reliance of local communities and our mining operations on this increasingly scarce resource. Managing all these ESG topics well will be integral to our social licence to operate and the success of our business.

  • Reporting our performance

    Our materiality assessment records the threshold at which an issue or topic becomes important enough for us to report on externally. The importance of a topic is based on the significance of its impact on stakeholders. An ESG materiality assessment differs from financial materiality, which may use financial metrics or other quantitative analyses to determine what would be considered a significant or material impact.

    As a member of ICMM, we commit to reporting on our ESG performance against the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards and implementing the ICMM Performance Expectations (PEs). The ICMM Mining Principles framework focuses on the implementation of systems and practices related to a broad range of ESG areas. In 2022, all 29 ÌÇÐÄvlogÈë¿Úmanaged operating and refining assets completed a self-assessment against the ICMM PEs. A self-assessment was also completed for ÌÇÐÄvlogÈë¿ÚCorporate. The criteria for prioritising 26 of our 29 operating assets for validation, within the 3 year cycle (2023–25), was also disclosed at this time.

    In 2023, on-site third-party validations were completed for 12 of our priority operating and refining assets. The validation reports received to date demonstrate a high level of alignment between the self-assessment and validation outcomes, with identification of relevant areas for improvement. Information on the 2022 self-assessment or 2023 validation results are presented in the ICMM PE Summary tab in the 2023 Sustainability Fact Book. We have continued to improve our reporting to meet additional disclosure requirements, including the ICMM Social and Economic Reporting Framework (SERF). In 2023, we have disclosed our performance against most of the SERF indicators.

    The majority of our ESG reporting is incorporated into this Annual Report and supplemented by our 2023 Sustainability Fact Book containing current and historical data on topics including health, safety, environment, climate, communities, human rights, responsible sourcing, ICMM Pes and transparency.

Our sustainability approach

Our sustainability approach

We have put climate change and the low-carbon transition at the heart of our business strategy
Hydropower, Kemano, Kitimat

Environmental, social and governance

We will achieve impeccable ESG performance by aligning our business priorities with society’s expectations

Our 2023 reports

Ports Dampier and Marine

Reports

Our reporting reflects our commitment to sustainability and transparency
BlueSmeltingâ„¢ project in Sorel-Tracy

Annual report

Our drive for innovation and continuous improvement is at the core of our purpose
Yarwun employee

Climate change report

The low-carbon transition is at the heart of our business strategy

Past reports

Sustainability Fact Book 2022
Sustainability Fact Book 2022
XLSX
1.87 MB
Sustainability Glossary 2022
PDF
554 KB
Conflict Minerals Disclosure 2022
PDF
135 KB
Sustainability Fact Book 2021
Sustainability Fact Book 2021
XLSX
3 MB
Sustainability Glossary 2021
PDF
121 KB
REACH Compliance: European Union Chemicals Legislation
PDF
21 KB
Conflict Minerals Disclosure 2021
PDF
164 KB
Sustainability Fact Book 2020
Sustainability Fact Book 2020
XLSX
1.67 MB
Sustainability Glossary 2020
PDF
757 KB
Conflict Minerals Disclosure 2020
PDF
134 KB
Sustainability Report 2019
Sustainability Highlights 2019
PDF
266 KB
Sustainability Appendix 2019
PDF
550 KB
Sustainability Glossary 2019
PDF
2.64 MB
Conflict Minerals Disclosure 2019
PDF
135 KB
Sustainability Report 2018
Sustainability Report 2018
PDF
9.78 MB
Sustainability Glossary 2018
PDF
56 KB
GRI Report 2018
PDF
954 KB
Conflict Minerals Disclosure 2018
PDF
29 KB
Sustainability Report 2017
PDF
6.53 MB
Sustainability Report 2016
PDF
7.62 MB
Sustainability Report 2015
PDF
3.64 MB
Sustainability Report 2014
PDF
7.22 MB
Sustainability Report 2013
PDF
12.93 MB
Sustainability Report 2012
PDF
9.89 MB

Contact our Sustainability team