Rio Tinto Group Sustainable Agenda

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MARY B. TEAGARDEN & ANDREAS P.J. SCHOTTER

Rio Tinto Group's Sustainable Development Agenda

Sustainable development, although not always using that name, has evolved through my whole career at Rio Tinto...

Sir Robert Wilson

Chairman ,

After more than thirty years with Rio Tinto, Sir Robert Wilson prepared to hand over the Rio Tinto reins to oil industry veteran, Paul Skinner. Wilson served in many roles at the company while experiencing a lot of change. In his last role as Chairman of Rio Tinto Group's elite board, Wilson championed the company's sustainability agenda. During his time at Rio Tinto he had witnessed the journey from what some have called "the bad old days" to today. There were many pressing issues to be considered on the path to Rio Tinto's future. Was sustainable development the right approach to address the root causes of the challenges that resulted in so much negative publicity for the company over the years? Why had some stakeholder groups persisted in believing that a mining company claiming to embrace sustainable development was a sham? Given the industry's competitive environment, do these negative stakeholder perceptions matter or do more fundamental business issues need to be addressed? What steps would Paul Skinner have to take to continue the sustainability agenda? What insights should Wilson pass along to his successor? Finally, how should the company build and communicate the financial justification for the continuation of the sustainability efforts?

Rio Tinto Overview

The Rio Tinto Company was founded in 1873 by some English capitalists and the Deutsche National Bank to mine the Rio Tinto copper deposit in Andalusia, Spain. In the 1950s and 1960s Andalusia experienced turbulent political and economic times, which caused the original investors to sell two-thirds of the mine in 1954 and the remaining interest only a few years thereafter. Rio Tinto expanded its mining and exploration globally and...