ZIA publishes updated ESG benchmarking study

February 2023

ZIA recently published its second industry-wide Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) benchmarking report. The study, which uses members’ data from 2018 – 2021, shows the industry is making progress against 20 ESG key performance indicators.

With regard to environmental indicators the data indicate:

• Renewable energy has potential for dramatic change on an individual company or site basis.
• Energy intensity is slowly rising.
• Biodiversity is increasingly important to external stakeholders and is of material interest to
• producers.
• There is a marked trend towards increasing land rehabilitation.

With regard to social indicators the data indicate:

• Over 100 million man-hours worked with zero fatalities.
• A significant improvement in Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR).
• Producers are investing more in biodiversity.

With regard to governance indicators the data indicate:

• A reduction in the number of lawsuits or government actions.
• Improvement in establishing good ESG practices.

ZIA Executive Director, Dr Keven Harlow, said:

“Throughout the four-year period to 2021, the zircon industry has made improvements in many ESG areas including reducing the number of environmental reportable incidents, increasing land rehabilitation, improving the LTIFR and utilising more renewable energy. The fact that, across the members that participated, over 100 million man-hours were worked with no fatalities, emphasises the importance our members place on implementing safe working practices.

“The full report gives participating members the ability to benchmark themselves against others in terms of ESG performance. The report also offers an independent and credible source of industry ESG data to use in response to queries from our value chains, the investment community, and other stakeholders. We look forward to including more of our members in future studies.”

An ESG summary report is available to download.

Notes to editors

1. Download the ESG benchmarking study summary report.
2. As a non-profit organisation, ZIA works on behalf of its members to develop and promote zircon, zirconia, and derivative products by advocating the benefits of their widespread application in today's world.
3. ZIA has a strict Code of Conduct and Antitrust policy which applies to all ZIA activities.

For further information, please contact:
Claire Caton / media@zircon-association.org