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40. Green Lead™ project aims to achieve Zero Harm from lead exposure
The global Green Lead™ project, as reported in our 2002 HSEC Report, is an initiative of the lead industry. Our Base Metals business is actively involved, primarily through the Cannington silver/lead/zinc mine in north Queensland, which initiated the project. The vision of the Green Lead™ project is to independently certify that producers are applying best practice to all aspects of the product life cycle - mining, processing, transporting, treating, manufacturing, storing, using and recycling. A group of foundation project partners, representing industry stakeholders involved in mining, smelting, manufacturing and recycling, is involved in implementing the project.
The Green Lead™ project proposes to take a ‘whole of life cycle’ approach to lead and its impacts on people and the environment and to analyse all of them. The Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) will be the foundation stone upon which the industry's mitigation responses will be built.
A formal plan for progressing the Green Lead™ project is currently being drafted, and the project's founding partners are developing two initial activities around the LCA framework - site facility pilot programs and certification audit trails.
The pilot programs will aim to identify and quantify the environmental, safety, health and social impacts associated with lead exposure throughout the lead life cycle, utilising LCA as one of the tools. Specifically, participants will identify all the potential sources for lead leakage into the environment. The pilot programs will also aim to identify any remediation issues and evaluate how to address them through remedial site management programs, plans and reports.
It is proposed that the results and outcomes of these pilot programs will help in creating an entire industry LCA and contribute to the development and drafting of Green Lead™ performance criteria and standards. These will cover such areas as environmental protection, workplace health and safety, and community issues associated with lead exposure.
The second activity, certification audit trails, will be developed in conjunction with the pilot programs. These will also be undertaken to assist in the development of the performance criteria and standards and an industry-wide certification criteria and processes. Certification would be achieved when an operation is managing its environmental, workplace and community impacts in a way that meets the agreed criteria.
As a key part of the whole process and following on from the LCA framework, it is proposed to develop a Product Stewardship Protocol. This will document the measures to be taken by each of the project participants to eliminate, offset or minimise any adverse consequences of the impacts of lead and to maximise its benefits.
An example may be the prescribing of covered transport vehicles to prevent the lead concentrate from escaping to the environment during transport, or it may address the use of renewable energy. There will be many detailed measures addressed in the Protocol, varying across the different sectors of the industry. The aim is to produce actions that are transparent, robust and verifiable.
All aspects of the development of the LCA and the Product Stewardship Protocol will be reviewed and validated by independent experts. In addition, a broad group of stakeholders will be invited to contribute their opinions and views, including environment NGOs, governments, communities and other members of the lead industry.
While the Green Lead™ project will be complex and difficult, it offers the potential to deliver significant benefits to the industry, the economy, users of lead products, their communities and the environment.
Further information on the Green Lead™ project can be found at www.greenlead.com
Green Lead™ Certification Criteria
