Sustainable Development

We take responsibility for the effects of our activities on people, society and the environment.

Glencore DRC employs nearly 15,000 people, including contract employees, whose work contribute to society. The majority of these employees work on our industrial sites in Lualaba and our offices in Lubumbashi and Kinshasa, where they are directly involved in the production of copper and cobalt commodities needed to implement the green technologies required for a sustainable, low-carbon economy.

Our sustainable development framework  is the primary vehicle for collecting and communicating sustainability risks, opportunities and performance intended to inform our business strategy. Our approach to integrating sustainability into all of our activities has clearly defined imperatives, objectives, priority areas and targets. It supports compliance with legislative requirements, managing catastrophic risks associated with our activities and maintaining our corporate operating license.

We focus our approach on four pillars: health and safety, environment, community and human rights.
We take responsibility for the effects of our activities on people, society and the environment.

Glencore DRC employs nearly 15,000 people, including contract employees, whose work contribute to society. The majority of these employees work on our industrial sites in Lualaba and our offices in Lubumbashi and Kinshasa, where they are directly involved in the production of copper and cobalt commodities needed to implement the green technologies required for a sustainable, low-carbon economy.

Our sustainable development framework  is the primary vehicle for collecting and communicating sustainability risks, opportunities and performance intended to inform our business strategy. Our approach to integrating sustainability into all of our activities has clearly defined imperatives, objectives, priority areas and targets. It supports compliance with legislative requirements, managing catastrophic risks associated with our activities and maintaining our corporate operating license.

We focus our approach on four pillars: health and safety, environment, community and human rights.

Glencore strives to make a valuable contribution to social progress
via the provision of employment opportunities and business partnerships, and via social development in the communities in which we operate.

In addition to our annual social investments, KCC and MUMI have recently signed ‘Terms of Reference’ – an agreement with local communities presenting specific social projects that are to be funded over the next five years after being identified by means of a consultation process held with the relevant communities.

Our social investments in the DRC include:

1. Infrastructure refurbishment, including Lualaba bridge and Kolwezi airport
2. A donation of USD 1 million in equipment, including fans, for support to the Lualaba Province in relation to COVID-19.
3. Building and rehabilitating 23 schools, donating materials to 16 others, and organising holiday camps for 16,000 children.
4. Providing health services to employees and their dependants, building health centres for the local community, and donating medicines and medical supplies to hospitals.
5. Providing support to 370 associations that provide training in welding, brick laying, agricultural manufacturing and improvement to 33,000 people.
6. Between 2017 and 2021, the total contributions in the fields of health, education, infrastructure and development exceeded USD 29 million.

Our approach to legitimate ASM

As a major producer of copper and cobalt in the DRC, we are committed resolving to the issue of legitimate and legal artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) with the communities living around our businesses in the DRC, the Government, the OECD, civil society and other key stakeholders, including our clients. Our approach is continually evolving, further exploring how ASM and industrial operations can coexist sustainably as distinct but complementary sectors of a thriving mining industry. We believe that legal ASM can play an important and sustainable role in the DRC’s economy when carried out responsibly and transparently, and can coexist with large scale mining.

As part of this strategy, Glencore is a member of the Fair Cobalt Alliance (FCA). The FCA’s mission aims to positively transform ASM in the DRC, and to work to eliminate child and forced labour as well as other dangerous practices. We are committed to working with our local communities and other stakeholders in the DRC in order to address the endemic poverty in this region, the underlying cause of ASM. Our operations in the DRC support development through many local programs, including a series of initiatives aiming to combating child labour and developing alternative sources of livelihood for the community, as described above. We also strive to address the socioeconomic root causes that lead to the high prevalence of child labour in Africa, with a specific focus on improving access to school education. KCC and Glencore improved learning conditions for 57,000 primary and secondary school students, and ran school holiday camps for nearly 16,000 children in 2019.

Human Rights

We are committed to respecting human rights in accordance with the United Nations’ (UN) Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. We defend the dignity, fundamental freedoms and human rights of our people and communities, as well as of others potentially affected by our activities.

Our ambition is to ensure respect and to promote respect for human rights within the Group and throughout our value chain, in view to enable the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals. We aim to:

• avoid causing or contributing to negative impacts on human rights;
• prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts related to our operations, products or services through our business relationships; and
• make a positive contribution to the promotion of the human rights of all, including vulnerable groups. In the event that we cause or contribute to a negative impact on human rights, we plan or cooperate with processes to allow for an appropriate remedy.