ANNOUNCEMENTS
Coal mining sector is one of the most water intensive industrial sectors. To achieve sustainability in the sector, changes are required right from the planning stage to implementation and postproduction management. Rather than output-driven, coal mining sector must be outcome-driven. With the changing norms and regulations, and investors’ focus on sustainability and ESG criterion, industries and businesses need to adapt to these changes and implement sustainable practices in their operations. In this research, existing conditions in the coal-mining sector have been studied through analysis of the policies and legislations in the coal mining sector of India. ESG criterion have called for greater focus on sustainability issues for the industries and initiatives in this regard in the Indian context have been studied. Coal India Limited, in recent times, have adopted sustainable practices in their operations and to have a better understanding of their performance when compared to international standards and other major mining corporations at the global level, ESG criteria analysis was done through analytical hierarchy process. All the 5 major firms were analysed on a same scale to avoid biases. ESG scores were calculated through statistical methods, after thorough review of literature and data collection. This analysis helped to understand the firms’ performances and where they are lacking in terms of resources management, especially water resources. Circular Economy approach has been proposed for the mining sector as mining industries need to adapt to the new norm of sustainable business and an approach which can minimize waste generation and promote greater resource utilization is the approach that can help the mining sector to become sustainable.
Keywords: Sustainable Reporting, ESG disclosure, Coal Mining, Water Management, Circular Economy.
