Industry, let alone mining industry, is rarely seen as an advocate for environmental benefits, sustainable future, or greener choices by the general public. The truth, however, is that our society doesn’t survive without industry or mining. Nowadays it is commonly known that a sustainable mine is more likely to be profitable, and this is because of improved transparency and greater operational efficiency, net of ore body characteristics and commodity prices (1). Large industry and mining companies have already taken huge steps towards sustainability and their interest in EPSE is a key example of this shift.
EPSE can help affecting positively on especially environmental impact of the mining and other industry. Key categories of environmental impact are water, land, and air, which include e.g., acid mine drainage, sedimentation, heavy metal spillage and waste, CO2 and other emissions. EPSE’s goal is to make an industry free of hazardous waste and together with operators, create a closed loop of water and recyclable metals contributing to circular economy. All this is possible, when EPSE™ Method is utilized: wastewater can be recirculated back to processes and heavy metals are precipitated out in a non-hazardous form.
According to Practical Guide to living sustainably by UN, business and industry have the power to shape an economy that can meet the sustainability needs. Circular economy can enable development while using less material resources. While regulators and customers can’t enable and raise the pressure for change, business leaders are the ones who can drive economic transformation.
World Environment Day 2022 is celebrated on Sunday the 5th of June. The day should accelerate the shift towards healing the planet instead of harming it: we must protect what we have and bring back what we lost to advance to a better, more sustainable future. This year’s campaign, #OnlyOneEarth calls for collective, transformative action on global scale to celebrate, protect and restore our planet. (2)
Sources:
(1) https://www.kearney.com/social-impact/article/-/insights/mining-takes-on-the-sustainability-challenge
(2) https://www.worldenvironmentday.global/get-involved/practical-guide
Text was written by Anni Honkonen