Harmony Gold

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses how often and through which channels it engages with various stakeholder groups. The company discloses how its stakeholder engagement activities impact its sustainability strategy. The company’s stakeholder engagement covers nature, including biodiversity, and social issues.

Key areas and species
The company has a management plan for locations within its own operations adjacent to areas important for biodiversity, and it discloses the percentage of land, fresh water and sea use in such locations. The company has a strategy regarding the conservation of species impacted by its own operations and value chain, aiming for a net-positive impact on threatened species.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
The company discloses it commits to one offset project per region by 2027. The interim target was 3 offset projects by 2022, which was not achieved.

Water
The company engages with suppliers to reduce water withdrawal. The company has a mitigation plan with clear steps including reference to communities and risks to the right to water.

Invasive species
The company discloses any introduction of invasive species resulting from its own operations or value chain. The company discloses its processes for preventing the introduction of invasive species or managing invasive species that have been introduced as a result of its own operations.

No leading practices were identified for the company in the social inclusion and community impact area.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
The company discloses its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability impacts as well as the outcome of this process, in relation to its sustainability strategy. The company does not disclose group-wide targets on key sustainability topics for the most material parts of its value chain. The company reports consistently against all its targets. Harmony Gold discloses its remuneration policy for its personnel, including the board and executives. However, no evidence was found that the company links performance criteria in senior executives’ remuneration policies to targets and objectives which cover nature, including biodiversity, and social issues. The company does not disclose whether its highest governance body has expertise regarding nature-related topics.

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses an overview of the issues raised during its stakeholder engagement activities.

Lobbying
The company does not report on its lobbying and advocacy practices on nature-related issues, nor whether these activities align with its sustainability strategy.

Impact and dependencies assessment
Harmony Gold discloses that as part of its biodiversity management plans, it assesses its biodiversity impacts by identifying and mapping sensitive and protected species and environments through our environmental impact assessment processes in part of its operations. However, it has not holistically assessed its impacts or how it depends on nature, including biodiversity. It has an opportunity to start such an assessment across its value chains, focused on quantification of its impacts or dependencies.

Key areas and species
The company discloses the locations that are in or adjacent to areas important for biodiversity within its own operations, both in Papua New Guinea. It discloses the area and species concerned. The company does not disclose the locations of its suppliers that are in or adjacent to areas important for biodiversity. The company does not disclose species populations existing in or adjacent to its own locations. The company does not disclose species populations existing in or adjacent to the locations of its suppliers. The company discloses the status according to national and international conservation lists of species identified in its own locations.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
No evidence was found regarding the company’s efforts to avoid ecosystem conversion, including deforestation. The company has an opportunity to develop a strategy and publicly report on specific, time-bound targets. The company is committed to restoring ecosystems. Harmony Gold discloses its Rehabilitation Strategy, developed last year. The strategy aims to use biodiversity offsets, manage vegetation, and final use of sites after mine closure.

Resource exploitation and circularity
No evidence was found regarding the company’s efforts to work towards a circular economy. The company has an opportunity to develop a strategy and publicly report on specific, time-bound targets. The company does not disclose efforts to improve soil health.

Water
While Harmony Gold discloses its water withdrawal performance data, this shows an increasing trend. Harmony Gold has water related targets, including water intensity targets, however, the company does not disclose a time-bound target to reduce water withdrawal across its own operations. The company reports how much water is withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas. The company does not report a decrease in water pollution. The company discloses its processes for managing and monitoring discharge water quality, including parameters such as pH, conductivity, suspended solids, Chemical Oxygen Demand, minerals and metals and E.coli. The company does not regularly report on water pollution. The company does not disclose targets to reduce water pollution. In its Water Management Strategy, Harmony Gold states that it aims to understand the company’s operations to avoid an impact on communities and provide support where possible, and it recognises the importance and relevance of the issue. This does not translate into a commitment to respect the right to water.

Solid and air pollution
No evidence that the company is reducing the production of hazardous waste was found. No evidence that the company reduces plastic use and waste in its own operations was found. The company does not report on the amount of plastic waste generated and proportions directed from or to disposal. The company reports regularly on air quality parameters of emissions of harmful air pollutants, including NOx, TSP and SOx atmospheric emissions annually. The company does not report time-bound targets to reduce air pollutants across the most material parts of its value chain.

GHG emissions
While Harmony Gold discloses its scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions, it does not disclose any greenhouse gas emissions, nor has it set a time-bound reduction target. The company must immediately set a reduction target aligned with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5-degree trajectory.

Invasive species
The company has not identified any activities that could lead to the introduction of invasive alien species in its own operations.

Safe, healthy, clean environment
The company does not disclose a commitment to respecting local communities’ right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment or to zero tolerance for acts of violence, threats, intimidation or judicial harassment committed against land and environmental rights defenders.

Indigenous peoples’ and land rights
The company does not disclose a commitment to respecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights or land rights of local communities.

The company has an opportunity to describe a comprehensive process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts across all its activities, especially through its business relationships. The company has an opportunity to describe a process for assessing the human rights risks it has identified and to disclose what it considers to be its salient human rights issues. A description of this process would include how relevant factors are considered, such as geographical, economic and social factors. No evidence was found that the company has a global system to act on its salient human rights issues. While the company discloses the categories of stakeholders it engages with generally on sustainability issues, it is not clear if these stakeholders are those whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities. No evidence that the company provides examples of its engagement with stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities was found.

There is no evidence that the company has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect the health and safety of workers. The company has an opportunity to disclose a time-bound target for paying all workers a living wage or that it has achieved paying all workers a living wage. The company has an opportunity to describe how it determines a living wage for the regions where it operates.  No evidence that the company describes how it works to support the payment of a living wage by its suppliers was found. The company discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements. No evidence that the company describes how it works to support the practices of its suppliers in relation to freedom of association and collective bargaining was found.

The company has an opportunity to publish a global tax strategy and should assign responsibility for this strategy to an executive-level individual or body. The company has an opportunity to disclose a policy on bribery and corruption and its processes for identifying and addressing bribery and corruption. The company does not disclose its approach to lobbying and political engagement in a public policy document.