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We are committed to meeting or exceeding environmental compliance requirements by creating environmental awareness, proactively managing environmental risks, promoting more efficient use of resources, encouraging wildlife and habitat conservation, maintaining strong stakeholder relationships, and protecting the land where we operate.
In addition to reducing our emissions (see Energy Efficiency and Emissions) and water consumption (see Water Stewardship) and protecting biodiversity (see Land Management & Biodiversity), we seek to be good neighbors by:
- Protecting Air Quality – We annually track and publicly report on various air-quality information (NOx, SOx, CO, VOCs). In addition, we utilize ultra-low NOx burners at select sites and employe a myriad of dust control measures which include dust-collection systems, water application, good housekeeping practices, and many others. We have invested millions of dollars in projects focused on reducing dust exposure for our Team Members, neighbors, and the environment.
- Improving Waste Management – We promote waste management practices aimed at reducing the volume of waste we generate, as well as encouraging the responsible handling of such waste. Our typical mining and processing sites have a mineral waste disposal plan that is reviewed annually and updated as needed. We also have recycling programs and diversion initiatives at various sites and reduce mineral waste by using excess materials as backfill whenever viable during reclamation projects. Essentially all of our tailings waste is reprocessed as backfill. Through our reusable-packaging initiative, we partner with certain suppliers to receive their deliveries in reusable totes.
- Reducing Noise Pollution, Vibration and Light – We conduct noise monitoring to stay within occupational and environmental standards; restrict mining and/or blasting timing to reduce noise impacts; and install noise isolation and soundproofing technologies.
Additionally, all facilities take into consideration the potential impacts to neighbors and communities and take appropriate measures – including blast design and monitoring programs – to avoid or mitigate any vibration impacts, in compliance with MSHA requirements.
In conducting our activities, all facilities take appropriate measures to avoid or mitigate any light impacts by utilizing strategic site layouts and the construction of earthen site berms and tree lines as appropriate. Other potential impacts are considered and mitigated, in compliance with MSHA requirements, with appropriate measures such as proper placement of lights and use of light shades. - Limiting Road Congestion – Our local communities’ feedback is very important to us and has led us to create an open-door commitment with all neighbors to reduce the impact to our communities. We listen to our communities and apply site-specific policies to alleviate any road congestion, from limiting hours of truck traffic and creating a traffic flow plan to and from our operations to building side roads for our operations and eliminating truck traffic passing through residential neighborhoods.
- Community Action Plans – Annually, every Covia site is required to submit a Community Action Plan (CAP) that specifies areas of priority for managing environmental and community opportunities. These plans are evaluated on a site-by-site basis to have the greatest impact at a local level.
- Protecting Indigenous Communities – As part of our Duty to Consul process, Covia conducts pre-consultation when seeking provincial permits that may impact the rights and interests of Aboriginal peoples across our operations in Canada. We also actively review the available database prepared by the Secretary of Environmental and Natural Resources in Mexico to identify potential impacts to the local indigenous communities.
Our Environmental Policy establishes a framework by which we set specific goals and objectives to improve our environmental performance, and we regularly evaluate performance to ensure we are operating in alignment with our environmental stewardship objectives through our comprehensive Environmental Management System (EMS).
Our EMS is based on internationally accepted ISO 14001 standards, which enables improvements in overall environmental performance by providing 1) enhanced predictability, consistency, and efficiency in managing our environmental obligations; 2) effective targeting and allocation of our environmental management resources; 3) proven frameworks for high-impact activities, such as pollution prevention, land management, and water usage; and 4) standardized data collection and reporting mechanisms to effectively measure, monitor, and share progress with our stakeholders.
Contact Covia today at ESG@CoviaCorp.com.
