The Board of Directors, through its Safety and Sustainability Committee, oversees health, safety, environment and community policies, systems, performance and auditing, including our Health, Safety, Environment and Community (HSEC) Management Standards.

The following senior leaders are involved in implementing the management of biodiversity and reclamation.

• Our Senior Vice President, Sustainability and External Affairs reports directly to our CEO and is responsible for sustainability, health and safety, environment, community, and Indigenous affairs, including biodiversity and conservation
• The Vice President, Environment oversees compliance with environmental standards for projects, operations and our legacy properties, and regularly reviews environmental performance risks and strategic issues
• The Director, Environmental Legacies is responsible for leading the assessment and management of legacy environmental issues, sites and facilities as well as the creation of new, positive legacies in biodiversity conservation and reclamation

Our Code of Sustainable Conduct describes how we will integrate biodiversity conservation considerations through all stages of business and production activities and outlines our commitment to continually improve our environmental practices and ensure they are fully integrated into each of our activities. Teck’s HSEC Management Standards include guidance on biodiversity management. These management standards, the associated guidance documents, and our adherence to them, are overseen by the Safety and Sustainability Committee of the Board of Directors.

We work with various local, national and international organizations and programs to support biodiversity.

• International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM): A global industry association that represents leading international mining and metals companies who are required to implement the ICMM 10 Principles, including Principle 7 on conservation of biodiversity and land-use planning
   
• Mining Association of Canada (MAC): Promotes the development of Canada’s mining and mineral processing industry. Through MAC, we are required to implement the Towards Sustainable Mining program, which aids in improving industry performance
   
• fRI Research: Teck has been a long-time and continued partner with fRI Research, a non-profit organization focused on sustainable land and resource management, including their Grizzly Bear Program
   
• Vancouver Aquarium: Our partnership with the Vancouver Aquarium includes a $12.5 million investment to support expansion of their facility and their research, conservation and education programs related to water and aquatic life
   
• Nature Conservancy of Canada: A leading national land conservation organization; our partnership includes collaboration on conservation projects and financial support from time to time
   
• Nature Trust of British Columbia: Through collaboration, Teck supports the organization’s goal of conserving B.C.’s biological diversity

Protected areas include those protected by national or regional law or designated by international organizations, including United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage sites and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) category Ia, Ib, II, III or IV protected areas. High biodiversity value areas have features that provide essential ecosystems relied on by humans and animals, and they have an abundance of rare, vulnerable or endemic species and/or large areas of relatively intact natural habitat.

As a member of the ICMM, we are committed to not explore or develop in UNESCO World Heritage sites. Currently, none of our operations or projects are located within areas protected by UNESCO or recognized by IUCN. The road between Red Dog Operations and the port facility, which is owned by the state-owned Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, passes through the Cape Krusenstern National Monument, an IUCN category III protected area. 

We have identified protected areas, areas of high biodiversity value, and species at risk that occur within 25 kilometres of our operations and major development projects. We have used this information as an input during the development of biodiversity management plans for each operation. A summary of the results of the proximity analysis, including those prioritized by international conservation initiatives such as Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, Key Biodiversity Areas, and World Wide Fund for Nature’s Global 200 Priority Ecoregions is shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Teck’s Proximity to Global Conservation Priority Species

Our vision for biodiversity management is to achieve a net positive impact (NPI) on biodiversity in areas affected by our activities. This means that ecosystems and biodiversity are better off at the end of mining than when we found them.

Mitigation Hierarchy

The mitigation hierarchy is a key framework we use to achieve our vision of NPI on biodiversity. To track and demonstrate our net positive impacts, we develop a “ledger” to account for negative and positive impacts on biodiversity. This approach is guided by the following principles:

• Avoid: Whenever possible, we avoid biodiversity impacts. In some cases, this may require significant changes in our plans in order to protect critical areas
• Minimize: At all times, we minimize impacts that are unavoidable, adopting best practices in mine operations
• Reclaim: On a progressive basis, we rehabilitate areas in order to re-create biodiversity values. Reclamation practices can replace much or most of the diversity of the natural habitats that existed prior to mining
• Offset: For areas where it may not be possible to replace all of the important biodiversity features that our mines impact, we design and implement biodiversity offsets to move towards a net positive impact on biodiversity
   

See this case study for additional details on how we measure our NPI.

In addition to this framework, we consider the cumulative effects to ecosystems caused by other parties’ past, present and reasonably foreseeable future activities. We then plan and implement protective or restorative actions based on our potential contributions to current conditions, and adjust our actions based on ongoing monitoring and research.

We currently have biodiversity management plans at each of our operations that set out how NPI can be achieved. Biodiversity management plans include: 

• A list of ecosystems and biodiversity elements at the site
• A summary of the risks and impacts that the site and its activities pose to these elements
• A plan, developed using the biodiversity mitigation hierarchy, that demonstrates how the site will manage its impacts and mitigate risks to achieve a net positive impact for each element
• A list of activities and resources required to implement the plan

To create the biodiversity management plans, operations and advanced projects collect biodiversity information, conduct a preliminary identification of risks and existing mitigation actions, conduct gap analyses, and create work plans. We identify risks, such as viability of subsistence activities, using a register that scores risks based on biodiversity, social/community, regulatory compliance and reputational factors. These plans are reviewed internally and updated as needed annually.

Figure 1: Teck’s Approach to Developing Biodiversity Management Plans

Social Environmental and Regulatory Approvals (SERA)

Typical environmental assessments for new mines or mine extensions are similar to our biodiversity management plans, in which the ecosystems and biodiversity elements relevant to a project or operation are identified, the risks and impacts on these elements are assessed, and a mitigation plan is developed that will reduce the project’s net impacts to a targeted level.

Despite the similarities, we continue to implement our biodiversity management plans as they are typically more expansive than the scope of an environmental assessment for the same site. Additionally, the goal of most environmental assessments is to minimize the residual impacts on biodiversity to an acceptable level; however, Teck’s goal across all sites is to achieve NPI, as described above.

Responsibly closing our sites and managing our legacy properties plays an important role in protecting biodiversity on the lands where mining once took place. While we are still operating at a site, we progressively reclaim portions of the mine site that are no longer required for current or possible future mining purposes. We apply the principle of “equivalent land capability” to reclaim land to the equivalent capability that will support species that live in the area, according to reclamation and land use objectives. We have also implemented research programs to help ensure that we adopt best practices. Our reclamation activities focus on conserving biodiversity and include aerial seeding in mined-out pits and the development of diverse wildlife habitats. This is supported by monitoring, such as annual wildlife surveys, documentation of wildlife using trail cameras, and the development of tracking databases to record rare and unusual wildlife sightings. 

We implement leading reclamation practices and have created an internal community of practice to share this knowledge across our operations. We have won awards for our reclamation practices at numerous operations, including all of our steelmaking coal operations and Highland Valley Copper Operations, and our legacy properties, including Pinchi Lake, Sä Dena Hes, Sullivan and McCracken.

For more information about reclamation, see the Responsible Mine Closure & Reclamation page on our website.

Reclamation Security

Many jurisdictions require mining companies to post financial security for all or part of the remaining costs associated with the mine reclamation and environmental protection. This is a precautionary measure to ensure that governments will not have to unreasonably contribute to the costs of reclamation and environmental protection of a mine site if a company is unable to meet its obligation to fully close and reclaim the site.

At Teck, we take this responsibility very seriously, and we meet all government requirements for security. We are committed to ensuring that this financial security never needs to be accessed, as we responsibly close and reclaim our mine sites and meet all of our environmental obligations, at no cost to government or taxpayers. Teck has a long and proven record of accomplishment in this regard.

Table 2: Biodiversity and Reclamation Internal and External Audits

Following each of these audits, applicable management teams use the results to inform future actions and Teck’s five-year planning process.