Thiess Group continues journey towards sustainable mining

With the release of its 2023 Sustainability Report, we have advanced our journey towards sustainable mining, reducing its emissions and diversifying its commodities and services.

Further progress was made towards its 2025 decarbonisation target, reducing Scope 1 emissions by 21% and Scope 2 emissions by 12% during 2023.

These efforts were further enhanced by the Group’s diversification of its commodities and services, to rebalance its thermal coal revenue to less than 25% by the end of 2027, which is tracking ahead of schedule. Recognising this, the Group has now set an additional diversification target to rebalance its portfolio to consist of less than 20% thermal coal revenue by the end of 2030.

The Group remains committed to supporting a smooth energy transition and will continue to provide sustainable mining services to its thermal coal clients as the use of this commodity continues to support economic growth in many societies.

Thiess Group Executive Chair & CEO Michael Wright commented: “I am very proud of our ongoing efforts to decarbonise our global operations through improving efficiencies, adopting renewable energy solutions where possible, and collaborating and trialling new and emerging lower emissions technology.

“Following the acquisition of MACA in 2022 and Thiess’ targeted organic growth, 2023 has seen us extend our commodities portfolio to include more of the critical minerals needed to power the global energy transition, and expand our capabilities into civil and crushing to offer our clients more choice and value in a range of new services.”

In 2023, the Group was awarded metals mining, civil and crushing contracts in Australia and overseas, with Thiess celebrating 35 years of operations in Indonesia with two nickel contracts – significant firsts for a business that has been part of the country’s coal sector since 1988. Thiess also secured a manganese contract and two copper contracts, and Thiess Rehabilitation was awarded their second contract.

Mr Wright said the Group launched its new purpose in 2023 – Pioneering spirit for a brighter tomorrow – to unite its more than 15,000 employees worldwide to deliver on the Group’s transformation strategy.

“Thiess turns 90 years in 2024, and ’Pioneering spirit for a brighter tomorrow’ is a call to leverage our legacy of innovation and engineering expertise to power our transition towards sustainable mining. We look forward to celebrating our anniversary this year.”

Thiess Group Executive of Strategy, Sustainability & Safety Shankar Gopalan said: “With our rich and proud 90-year legacy, the Thiess Group is diligently working across a wide stakeholder cohort, both internal and external, to deliver on our ESG commitments of minimised environmental footprint, enhanced social value, and transparent, trusted governance.

“In 2023, we signed the United Nations Global Compact in support of their 10 Principles on human rights, labour, environment, and anti-corruption. This further reinforces our sustainability commitments and formalises our support to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.”

In 2023, the Group also further integrated data from its companies (Thiess, MACA, Fleetco and RTL) to enable a more accurate understanding of its sustainability progress. With the intention of streamlining its reporting and elevating transparency, the Thiess Group published a Sustainability Databook alongside its Sustainability Report (which now includes the Climate Report).

ESG highlights from Thiess Group 2023 Sustainability Report

Minimised environmental footprint
• In partnership with clients, Thiess rehabilitated 632 hectares of post-mining land.
• Thiess focused on expanding water recycling and reuse initiatives, with 3,088 mega litres of water reused and recycled.
• Thiess commenced battery electric and hybrid light vehicle trials in Australia, USA and Chile.
• The Thiess Group recorded zero Class 1 or 2 environmental incidents.

Enhanced social value
• The Thiess Group contributed to over 193 community-led organisations globally.
• In Australia, the Group’s Indigenous workforce representation increased to 5.8%.
• Female workforce representation by increased by a further 15% globally during the year.
• The Thiess Group reported a 12-month rolling total recordable injury frequency rate (TRIFR) of 1.22 per million hours worked – a 12.2% reduction on the 2022 TRIFR of 1.39.

Transparent, trusted governance
• The Thiess Group spent $38.1 million with 58 Indigenous businesses in Australia, representing 2.43% of its total national influenceable spend.
• The Thiess Group developed and implemented a Respectful Workplace Standard, and delivered company-wide Creating Respectful Workplaces education and training.
• The Thiess Group implemented a new Group Governance Policy.

The Thiess Group 2023 Sustainability Report and Databook has been prepared in alignment with the Global Reporting Initiative Standards ('GRI'). GRI is a globally recognised standard for sustainability reporting and disclosure.

The full report is available to download at thiess.com/sustainability