Standards and the Extractive Economy

The SSI Review: Standards and the Extractive Economy, a joint report from the State of Sustainability Initiatives and the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development, examines the intersection of voluntary sustainability initiatives (VSIs) and sustainable development within the mining sector.

The report highlights environmental, social and business-related impacts associated with mining activities and the different types of upstream and downstream VSIs in the sector. It highlights the variety of commodities mined, from precious stones to sand and gravel, and how different VSIs can achieve different results. It identifies collaboration as essential to working toward the interoperability of VSIs, both up and down the value chains and across various sector-focused themes. 

The report also provides a systematic analysis of 15 major sustainability initiatives in the mining sector, including standards relating to artisanal and small-scale mining, and presents a snapshot of the mining and minerals sector by commodity type. 

This report was published in 2018 with data inclusive from 2015 and 2017.