Sherritt maintains active engagement with our stakeholders for the betterment of our operations, employees and the communities in which we operate. We recognize that we have an important role in providing opportunities for local communities to achieve their development goals. We are firmly committed to providing a safe and inclusive work environment, and to upholding human rights throughout our supply chain.
Sherritt is committed to ensuring the health and safety of everyone at our operations. This commitment is embodied in several key mechanisms to prevent fatalities, minimize risks, ensure that leaders are coaching in work areas regularly, address psychological safety and mental health, involve personnel at every level of the operations to improve safety behaviours and identify continual improvement opportunities.
We have also established enterprise-wide standards aligned with international best practice. Sherritt’s health and safety standards draw from the Mining Association of Canada’s Towards Sustainable Mining Safety and Health Protocol, and ISO 450001 and industry best practice related to fatality prevention. We update these standards regularly as part of our commitment to continuous improvement, operational excellence and a stronger safety culture.
We track a series of leading indicators designed to increase safe behaviours, improve competency, ensure safe working conditions and strengthen safety culture. These indicators include visible felt leadership interactions, proactive health and safety communications, workplace inspections and training. We also have a significant potential incident standard in place, which requires tracking and specific management actions for any workplace incident that, under different circumstances, could have resulted in a fatality.
Assurance on our health and safety programs is conducted through regular executive reviews, peer comparisons, internal audits and independent assessments.
Sherritt recognizes the inherent value that comes from having a diverse group of employees at all levels of the organization. We understand that as the mining industry faces talent attraction and retention challenges, diversity, inclusiveness and a respectful work environment will be required to help us continue to excel. We also recognize that our stakeholders want to see themselves and their values reflected in our organization.
We have set specific targets around increasing the number of our female employees to 36% by 2030. To support us in meeting this target and other diversity and inclusion goals, we have also developed Employee Resource Groups specifically meant to promote diversity and inclusion. These objectives are further reinforced by our Diversity and Inclusion Policy and our Five-Year Action Plan as set out in Sherritt’s Global Framework for Diversity & Inclusion.
For information on the exciting initiatives we are undertaking to help us reach our goals, please see our 2023 Sustainability Report.
Effective stakeholder engagement is critical to maintaining our social licence to operate. We work to establish and maintain productive relationships with our stakeholders and to maximize the shared benefits of our activities. Through our work, we aim to contribute to long-term mutual prosperity.
We take a respectful approach to engaging with our stakeholders and supporting the development of sustainable communities. We recognize that a significant part of our role is to help build human and institutional capacity wherever we operate so that local communities can achieve their development goals. Our goal is to align 100% of our community investment with needs and priorities as identified by communities themselves.
Sherritt is committed to addressing environmental, social and governance risks, including human rights and the rights of children. Although human rights issues do not currently represent a top risk at Sherritt, they can present an inherent risk to all mining and energy production operations. To manage this risk, we have ensured our management systems align with international best practices and expectations regarding human rights. We developed an enterprise-wide Human Rights Policy that aligns with OECD guidelines and we remain committed to uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, along with other international principles. We also regularly engage with best practice guidance and principles through our participation in the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights.
Sherritt regularly assesses human rights risks in its mineral supply chain, and to date, no risks of human rights abuses, artisanal or small-scale mining, forced labour or modern slavery have been identified. Effective local laws and systems are in place at all Sherritt operations to prevent these risks. Measures are taken at the operations to comply with local human rights regulations. Sherritt also regularly conducts due diligence in the mineral supply chain to validate and ensure that human rights risks are identified and mitigated.