RCM’s Active and Busy ESG Agenda

The Royal Canadian Mint (RCM) produces coins for Canada, exports over 1 billion coins each year and provides technical support and materials to other mints. Sustainability (in its broadest sense) is a key part of the Mint’s operations and philosophy (as noted in the interview with Marie Lemay, CEO of RCM), and it has recently issued its latest Environment Social and Governance (ESG) report.

Environment

RCM’s Winnipeg facility produces domestic and foreign coins. In 2021 it achieved accreditation to the ISO 14001 environmental management standard. It has undertaken a series of small and large scale projects in its pursuit of achieving carbon neutrality by 2030.

Small scale projects include installing electric car chargers, having a bee garden and putting in recycling bins for personal protective equipment.

In 2021, 40% of Winnipeg’s waste, 173 tonnes, was diverted from landfill by being recycled and composted, and as a result of employee awareness training. The goal for 2022 was 42%.

RCM is also using data analytics in its coin life cycle management and production demand forecasting.

Social responsibility

The social responsibility agenda allows RCM to build resilience. It is planning for a future cash light society, including thinking about the unbanked and under- banked in society who depend on cash.

Socio-economic equity requires the coin management system to ensure all in society can participate.

RCM is active in encouraging and recognising diversity in society with a wide range of activities. These include issuing a commemorative coin in 2021 celebrating black Canadians and First Nation people, and in 2022 issuing a circulating coin with the image of Oscar Petersen, the first musician and first black person to be on a circulating coin.

In 2022 RCM produced a Truth and Reconciliation Keepsake, ‘Every Child Matters’, as part of its Mint Charitable Program.

RCM also strives to have a ‘Caring Culture’ in the workplace. It offers staff flexible working, generous parental and compassionate leave and tuition scholarships for the children of employees.

Corporate governance

Ethical sourcing needs collaboration and transparency to be successful. It focuses on sourcing materials, the manufacturing of products and how partners are selected.

RCM is part of the Responsible Metals Program. This requires strong management systems, risk assessments, mitigation, third party audits and public accountability. RCM also has a whistle blowing mechanism for staff.

RCM is part of the Gold Bar Integrity Pilot project. This project is using blockchain technology to track the integrity, provenance and chain of custody of gold bars.

Sustainability metrics are included in procurement.

Significant investment is being made in systems and technology, and 60% is estimated to increase RCM’s sustainability. It is funding research into more sustainable electroplating solutions in order to reduce the use of chlorine in refining and it is investing in a blanking process called ‘flaring’ that reduces metal waste in bi- metallic coin production.

ESG trends

The report provided data on six key trends:

• Green House Gas emissions – up 6% on 2021 but lower than 2018-20. 6,451 tonnes CO2 equivalent. Scope 1 and Scope 2 only.

• Water consumption – down 13.4% on 2021. Lower than any year other than 2020, at 246,300 cubic meters. This is for Ottawa and Winnipeg.

• Solid waste recycling – 52%, up from 39% in 2018. This is the total percentage of waste recycled, broadly defined to include reuse, recycling and composting, but excluding incineration.

• Employee training – the average number of training days per employee was 6.8, down slightly on 2021 but still ahead of the target of five days. The second lowest number of days since 2018.

• Lost time injuries – 1.7 compared with 1.5 in 2021, and the second highest level since 2018. This is calculated as the number of lost time injuries x 200,000/the number of hours worked.

• Employee turnover – 9%, fractionally ahead of the five year average. Employee turnover is calculated by dividing the number of employees who left the company in 2022 by the total number of employees.

2023 ESG commitment and action plan

For the environment, RCM will continue its work on achieving carbon neutrality by 2030 and waste diversion. It is looking to reduce its water consumption by 5% over three years.

RCM has a roadmap to compliance by 2024 with reporting requirements associated with the Task Force on Climate- Related Financial Disclosure. This requires including climate risk and opportunities into its business strategy, risk management and full disclosure of carbon-related metrics and targets, including Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, and performance against those targets.

In 2023, the research at McGill University on separating metals and optimising chemical reactions will move out of the laboratory to larger scale trials.

At Winnipeg, advances with geothermal technology are allowing warm water from under the facility to be extracted and used in manufacturing operations, reducing natural gas and electricity consumption.

RCM is looking to expand its sourcing for precious metals to include Indigenous groups within Canada and it is evaluating adding Canadian gold sourced from artisanal and small-scale mining.

For its social agenda, RCM will achieve 85% participation in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion active learning opportunities, reduce reportable injuries year on year and meet its five days of development per employee per year.

Under governance, RCM will fully implement ESG considerations into its contracting life cycle, continue its refinery traceability program and maintain its industry leading certifications.

The ESG Commitment and Action Plan can be found here.