WWF Russia publishes rating of environmental information openness among mining and metallurgical companies

On December 14, 2021, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) presented the results of a rating of environmental transparency among mining and metallurgical companies operating in Russia.
The top ten included Polyus Gold with a final score of 1.843, Novolipetsk Metallurgical Plant (1.716), Metalloinvest (1.667), Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Plant (MMK) (1.644), Severstal (1.639), Kinross Gold (1.565), Polymetal (1.551), Phosagro, GK (1.538), AGD DIAMONDS (1.49) and Nordgold (1.468). ALROSA took the twelfth place in the WWF rating with 1.44 points.
The study revealed an increase in the openness of environmental information in the industry as a whole, as well as the presence of a number of consistently non-transparent participants in the rating, the WWF said in a statement. The rating was calculated for the first time by ACRA RM. It is implemented with the support of the European Union.
The 2021 rating is based on the 2020 data. The assessment was carried out according to 25 criteria of openness. The study involved 39 companies. The new rating fixes a record average openness score for the entire period of its existence.
The growing number of companies that respond to the requests of the rating organizers can be considered another indicator of the growing openness in the industry. If in 2016 additional information on environmental protection and environmental impacts while processing the first collected data and analysis was provided by 13 companies, this year 23 companies were willing to provide such information.
This year, the top three leaders were led by Polyus, which has been in the top list of the research for several years. And the second and third places were taken by NLMK and Metalloinvest respectively, which happened to be in the top three for the first time.
“Public control over the work of companies has especially intensified since last year, new methods and technologies have emerged to help this. It is especially effective to achieve a reduction in environmental impact when the business conducts an honest, open dialogue with all stakeholders. Our rating has become one of the new mechanisms for obtaining feedback for companies in the industry,” says Alexey Knizhnikov, head of the WWF Russia program on environmental responsibility of business. "But if a company crosses the red lines in matters of environmental and industrial safety and the organization of a constructive dialogue with the public, we resort to penalties."
The WWF-Russia rating has been conducted since 2015 and permits to obtain comparative assessments of the degree of environmental responsibility of companies and the scale of the impact of their activities on the environment. As in the previous year, AGD DIAMONDS became the best among diamond mining companies.

Vladimir Malakhov, Rough&Polished