Rio Tinto

Sustainability strategy and accountability
Rio Tinto provides evidence of linking performance criteria in senior executives’ remuneration policies to targets and objectives which cover nature and social issues, including the delivery of its climate goals and an increase of women in its workforce. 

Stakeholder engagement
Rio Tinto discloses an overview of the issues raised during its stakeholder engagement activities and how often and through which channels it engages with various stakeholder groups. It is one of the few companies to disclose how its stakeholder engagement activities impact its sustainability strategy. The company’s stakeholder engagement covers nature, including biodiversity, and social issues.

Lobbying 
Rio Tinto discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member wherever it operates. In addition, the company discloses a framework for assessing alignment of its trade associations centred around the Paris Agreement as well as misalignments between the lobbying activities of its trade associations and climate policies.

Impact and dependencies assessment 
The company reported on the biodiversity sensitivity of its assets in 2020. It has completed a risk and impact assessment for 100% of its high-priority biodiversity sites and 86% of all its sites.

Key areas and species 
Rio Tinto discloses the locations that are in or adjacent to areas important for biodiversity within its own operations. It 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 also discloses species populations existing in or adjacent to its own locations and their status according to national and international conservation lists.

Water 
The company discloses its processes for implementing preventive and corrective action plans for identified specific risks to the right to water and sanitation in its own operations.

Invasive species 
The company ensures it does not introduce new invasive species and takes control measures against the species it has been made aware of, such as yellow crazy ants.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment 
Rio Tinto demonstrates that its human rights risks and impacts identification process includes a focus on the health of local communities. Additionally, it is committed to zero tolerance for acts of violence, threats, intimidation or judicial harassment committed against land and environmental rights defenders.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights 
Rio Tinto is committed to respecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights, and it discloses its processes for identifying and recognising the rights of Indigenous Peoples when activities in its own operations may impact their rights. Moreover, the company describes how it obtains Indigenous Peoples’ free, prior and informed consent, and it has a commitment to respect ownership, use of land, natural resources and related legitimate tenure rights.

Sustainability strategy and accountability 
While Rio Tinto has a climate target, it does not disclose targets for issues such as water withdrawal, solid waste or biodiversity. The chief executive is responsible for the environmental sustainability strategy, but it is unclear who is responsible for the social side of the strategy. Furthermore, the board of directors has climate expertise. However, it is unclear if it has expertise with respect to the company’s most material pressures on nature.

Lobbying 
Rio Tinto has an opportunity to show leadership by integrating biodiversity in the criteria for its industry association review.

Impact and dependencies assessment 
Rio Tinto has an opportunity to perform a business model assessment to fully understand its impact on nature. While the company discloses biodiversity performance and areas by asset, it does not assess its impacts on nature, including biodiversity, in the upstream activities of its value chain. Although Rio Tinto used a database developed by the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre that combined global datasets of threatened species and conservation and protected areas, there is no further evidence that the company assesses the dependencies on nature of its upstream business relationships.

Key areas and species 
Rio Tinto does not disclose the locations of its suppliers that are in or adjacent to areas important for biodiversity and species populations existing in or adjacent to the locations of its suppliers.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration 
Rio Tinto does not have a commitment to ensure zero conversion. While its land management and rehabilitation policy states that it strives to confine its activities to the strict minimum, no evidence was found in the public domain that the company works towards achieving conversion-free supply chains. The company does not have time-bound targets to achieve conversion-free supply chains.

Resource exploitation and circularity 
Rio Tinto does not disclose its inputs, including its material footprint. While it discloses the percentage of key products with life-cycle assessments, it does not quantitatively report its circularity performance. The company discloses activities to improve soil health, but it has an opportunity to disclose a related target.

Water 
Rio Tinto discloses an increase in water withdrawal between 2020 and 2021. While the company states that it will disclose permitted surface water allocation volumes, their annual allocation usage and the associated surface water allocation catchment rainfall runoff volume estimate by 2023 for all managed operations, it does not disclose a time-bound target to reduce water withdrawal across its own operations and reports progress against the target. The company reports how much water is withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas. H, however, there is an opportunity for engagement with suppliers to reduce water withdrawal. Although the company reports a decrease in water pollution, it does not disclose its processes for managing and monitoring discharge water quality, nor does it regularly report on water pollution. Rio Tinto has a strong opportunity to disclose targets to reduce water pollution as well as a commitment to respect the right to water.

Solid and air pollution 
Rio Tinto is reducing the production of hazardous waste. However, it is not reducing plastic use and waste in its own operations, nor does it report on the amount of plastic waste generated. While the company reports regularly on air quality parameters of emissions of harmful air pollutants, it has an opportunity to disclose a time-bound target to reduce air pollutants across the most material parts of its value chain and report progress against the target.

GHG emissions 
Rio Tinto has a time-bound target to reduce its scope 1 and 2 emissions and reports progress against it. However, while the company discloses that its scope 1 and 2 emissions target is aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory according to an external third-party audit, this is not an approved science-based target. Furthermore, while the company is reducing its scope 3 emissions and states that it is engaging with its iron ore and bauxite customers to cover over 50% of its scope 3 emissions, no evidence of a time-bound target to reduce its scope 3 emissions was found in the public domain. The company has a strong opportunity to set a scope 3 emissions reduction target aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Invasive species 
While Rio Tinto provides some examples, no evidence was found that the company systematically identifies the activities that could lead to the introduction of invasive alien species (IAS) in its value chain.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment 
The company states that it complies with national and local environmental regulations and acknowledges the right to an adequate standard of living and the right to clean drinking water and sanitation. However, it has an opportunity to disclose a commitment to respect the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment as well as to track its actual or potential negative impacts on the health of local communities.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights 
Rio Tinto does not require its business relationships to have a process to identify legitimate tenure rightsholders, paying particular attention to vulnerable or marginalised tenure rightsholders, and to negotiate with them to provide adequate compensation.

Rio Tinto describes the process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations. The company also describes the process for identifying human rights risks and impacts in its business relationships. The company describes its process(es) for assessing its human rights risks and discloses what it considers to be its salient human rights issues. Further, the company describes its global system to take action to prevent, mitigate or remediate salient human rights issues, and this includes a description of how its global system applies to its supply chain. The company discloses categories of stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities. The company also engages with stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities.

The company has a publicly available policy statement which shows it is committed to respecting the health and safety of workers. The company has a publicly available policy statement which shows it expects its suppliers to commit to respecting the health and safety of their 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. In addition, the company has an opportunity to describe how it determines a living wage for the regions where it operates. The company has an opportunity to disclose the coverage of collective bargaining agreements. The company also has an opportunity to describe how it works to support the practices of its suppliers in relation to freedom of association and collective bargaining.

The company discloses a global tax strategy. There is no evidence that the company describes the process for identifying its bribery and corruption risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations. However, it does include anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with direct business relationships. There is no evidence that the company has a publicly available policy statement or policy setting out its lobbying and political engagement approach. The company specifies that it does not make political contributions.