Bettercoal reiterates commitment to further transparency

Bettercoal is working towards a global responsible coal supply chain. We were established by a group of major coal buyers to promote the continuous improvement of sustainability performance in their coal supply chain. We do this by assessing the performance of coal mining operations against the ten principles of the Bettercoal Code through the Supplier Assessment Process.

Responsible mining is essential to the sustainable growth of our societies. And coal still has a significant role to play in the economy through its multiple uses as a source of energy for electricity generation, steel and cement manufacturing, carbon fibre, mobile phones and even household use. Therefore, it was important to create an internationally recognised standard for the coal mining industry allowing both the producers and the buyers of coal to have confidence and manage the risks in their supply chains.

Our values are: Continuous Improvement, Stakeholder Engagement, Transparency and a Risk-Based Approach.

During the course of 2018, Bettercoal worked with its Members, Technical & Advisory Committee as well as other external stakeholders to update and improve its assessment procedures. This resulted in the publication and implementation of a new Assessment Process which included a mandatory site-assessment for participating mining companies, an obligation to report at minimum twice a year on performance against the Continuous Improvement Plan, desktop or site-verification depending on the findings, a full re-assessment every five years maximum and the publication of a high level public report outlining the findings of the site-assessment.

OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals

Bettercoal has taken steps towards alignment with the OECD Guidance and we hope to further align with this in 2019-2020. The Bettercoal Code was updated in 2018 to reflect changes in the Guidance.

The Code is a robust standard and the Site-Assessments and resulting Continuous Improvement Plans, which must be reported against at least twice a year, fulfil steps 1 through 4 of the guidelines. Bettercoal is committed to transparency and we believe that the availability of the public summary reports is a positive and important first step on this path.

To build on this progress, Bettercoal is working with its Advisory Committee, the Board and Members on further increasing the level of detail shared in public reports as well as seeking full alignment with the OECD Guidance. The first step will be to assess the performance of Bettercoal against the guidance, establish where the gaps are and implement the required changes.

As an industry programme, Bettercoal is not a certification mechanism. Bettercoal engages with every producer provided they go through a site-assessment, develop a continuous improvement plan and demonstrate timely progress against this plan. Failure to demonstrate meaningful progress leads to Bettercoal disassociating from a supplier. The decision to purchase or not from a supplier that has gone through the Bettercoal assessment process is an individual decision made by Members of Bettercoal where the Bettercoal Assessment Results serve as one of the tools in their own internal due diligence processes.

On the Joint Statement

The joint statement we received outlines multiple points. Some of these are related to Bettercoal as an organisation and we respond to those below. Further, we welcome a dialogue with the signatories to discuss additional points raised by the Joint Statement.

Regarding the public summary reports:

• It is important to note that the Public Summary Report is a simple summary of the assessment and does not reflect all the work which goes into the assessment of a mine. The joint statement provided some very helpful feedback on the type of information that stakeholders would like to see in these reports, and we will take this into consideration;
• We maintain our commitment, that if significant risks and impacts were identified during the assessment which were not already known to communities and individuals, these would be made known to them;
• Suppliers report on their progress on a bi-annual basis at a minimum and the reports will be updated to reflect the number of findings addressed or not, those which are overdue, and the required verification method (desktop review or site-visit);
• Bettercoal is working on translation of all documents into the relevant languages, however this requires verification before publication. We aim to have all significant documents accessible in English, Spanish, Russian and Bahasa. Public Reports will be available in local language within 3 weeks of their publication. The Bettercoal Code is currently available in multiple languages on our website.

Regarding stakeholder consultation:

• On average, over 30 collective and individual interviews with stakeholders outside of the mine (excluding the employees interviewed as part of the assessment) were conducted for each of the assessments. Stakeholders who could not be met during the assessment were interviewed before the finalisation of the report.
• For confidentiality reasons we cannot list all individuals interviewed as part of the assessments, however we do disclose all the organisations interviewed as part of the public report. For one company assessment the assessors interviewed:
• several local representatives (mayors of local communities, trade union representatives and members, local community leaders, Secretary of Health, Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Planning and the Ombudsperson)
• fishermen association leaders and members, town council members of affected communities and displaced communities, small business owners in resettled communities, local civil society organisations;
• UNDP representatives, OECD national contact point, members of Asociación nacional de usuarios campesinos de Colombia, The Amanecer Foundation, JAC members, representatives from the Comité de Concertación, FUNPLANB, Representatives of Asocomunal, project VITAL and many others.
• Bettercoal informs stakeholders of the dates that it conducts site-assessments of specific companies. We have sometimes been approached by stakeholders asking to be interviewed as part of the assessment. We always welcome suggestions for interviews from external stakeholders.

Regarding quality and content of the public summary reports:

• Bettercoal launched its new assessment process in June 2018. Part of the new process which is explained in the Bettercoal Assessment Manual publicly available on our website, is that “Bettercoal will consider setting up an independent committee that oversees the assurance process and Assessor quality. This can include periodic reviews of assessment and decision-making activities to ensure that the integrity and impartiality of the process is not compromised”. This committee will be established before the end of 2019 when a sufficient number of assessments have been performed to have a meaningful analysis.
• Bettercoal Assessors are independent third-party assessors. The Bettercoal Secretariat and Members are not involved in the assessments or production of the reports. But we note the concerns raised around issues specific to the mining activities in Colombia and these will be discussed and followed-up on with the relevant Assessors and mining companies as part of our Colombia Working Group.

Bettercoal welcomes constructive criticism and we view this open letter as an opportunity to further improve the way Bettercoal communicates with stakeholders across the value chain. We reiterate our invitation to the signatories of the statement to consider joining our Technical Advisory Committee on which sit a number of representatives from civil society. And we view this as an opportunity to discuss the further improvements that Bettercoal can make as it strives to build a more responsible coal supply chain.