When Things Go Wrong
Apex Mining is a Canadian headquartered copper and silver producer and refinery with operations in Canada, Australia, South America and Southeast Asia.
The company's Board of Directors and the management are committed to corporate social responsibility reporting and have published a Sustainability Report for the past 10 years. Each year the report becomes more sophisticated, and now uses the Global Reporting Initiative Guidelines. The company's assessment of the guidelines is externally verified by a consulting group and several NGOs.
The company has a Values Statement that is integrated with other aspects of management. The company also has a Code of Business Practices that covers all issues related to ethics, and, social and environmental responsibility. The Board and employees must acknowledge their understanding and adherence to these practices on an annual basis. Over the years Apex has won several awards for its social and environmental initiatives.
The past year has been a difficult one for Apex, and some events will present challenges to this year's Sustainability Report. The company has been accused of poor labour practices in South America for paying low wages and preventing the formation of a union. In Southeast Asia, there have been major pollution problems as the settling pond for the mine leaked and polluted local water supplies.
At home in BC, aboriginal groups allege the company is not doing enough to create employment opportunities for them. As well, evangelical religious groups are protesting against the company's gay rights policy, in particular the recognition of same-sex relationships for benefit and pension plans.
However, economically Apex is doing very well.
QUESTIONS:
1. How could all of these challenges arise when Apex appears to be practicing a good approach to CSR?
2. If you were providing consulting advice, how would you recommend Apex go about influencing the affected stakeholders? Consider each one.
3. What should be included in the Sustainability Report around all of these challenges?
4. What does Apex need to do to prevent a recurrence of these types of challenges?