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To be both successful and sustainable, an extractive company needs to obtain a variety of accesses: approval from government authorities and communities, access to use of resources (such as water), human capital, financing and others. SmartAccEss defines “access” for extractive industries as the proper management, coordination and function of sustainability components, including permitting, community relations, environmental and social responsibility, government relations, external relations and communications. Managing just one of these aspects, or even a few of them, increases a company’s chances to initiate or continue activities in the long term. This is the SmartAccEss promise:  to ensure that all these aspects are working in concert for the sustainability of your business.
SmartAccEss enhances the ability of your business to gain the access to resources that is required to meet your objectives.

Strategic Plans:

Development and support implementation of:

  • Social responsibility strategic plans.
  • Environmental strategic plans.
  • Permitting strategy and support.
  • Water management strategies, including sediment control.
  • Corporate environmental & social strategies.

Due Diligence, Third-Party Reviews and Stage-gate Revisions:

Conduct:

  • Sustainability* due diligence of mining properties (mergers & acquisitions).
  • Sustainability* third-party and independent peer reviews, including revisions of projects prior to funds approval of their respective investment council (or similar) to move to the next stage.

Sustainability* support to the different phases of the mining life-cycle:

Development and implementation of:

  • Customized sustainability* management systems for exploration, construction projects, operations and closure activities.
  • Environmental and social management plans for construction projects to proactively improve management of social and environmental impacts.

Staff organization, training and awareness:

  • Sustainability team effectiveness assessment, staff coaching and mentoring.
  • Sustainability* staff training to improve day-to-day environmental and social capabilities.
  • Development and implementation of team and organizational-wide social responsibility culture programs to improve social awareness.

Standards, Performance and Assurance:

Development and support implementation of:

  • Global sustainability* standards and guidance.
  • Assurance programs.
  • Targets and KPIs.

Conduct:

  • Sustainability* management and performance audits and assessments, and provide support to close-out outstanding audit/assessment findings.
  • Legal compliance audits.
  • Audits against IFC (International Finance Corporation) performance standards.
  • Certification audits, re-certification audits and gap assessments against the International Cyanide Management Code (ICMC).
  • Mine closure and reclamation audits and review of closure cost estimates and plans.
  • Bettercoal Code assessments (for coal mines)
  • Copper Mark audits (for copper mines)
  • World Gold Council’s (WGC) Responsible Gold Mining Principles (RGMPs) assessments and assurance.
  • Mining Association of Canada’s Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) standard

Sustainability* advisory:

Provide sustainability advice for on-the-ground performance in:

  • Community conflict prevention and resolution.
  • Crisis management.
  • Community commitments registers.
  • Community risk analysis for project decision making.
  • Environmental inspections programs.
  • Environmental monitoring programs, including participatory monitoring (e.g. water, air).
  • Environmental and social data collection and reporting systems.
  • ISO 14001 environmental management systems.
  • Proactive communication plans for environmental and social matters.
* Sustainability includes aspects related to Environmental, Social Responsibility and Community Relations, Permitting, Government Relations, External Relations and Communications