Sustainable raw material economy

Development of assessment systems for the sustainability at the raw material extraction

Background of the research assignment ”Development of assessment systems for the sustainability at the raw material extraction” was the sociopolitical discussion concerning a sustainable development.

Against this background, an assessment system for the sustainability of raw material extraction was developed at the institute for mining studies I at the RWTH Aachen in a cooperation between ZPP or the predecessor company. With the help of this system, the requirements for a sustainable raw material ecology was to be made measurable, allowing for an objective, comparing assessment of different raw material production processes.

Hereby, the development of indicators based on already approved, international parameters created a foundation, whereas these were adjusted and complemented, based on the special circumstances for the raw material extraction. The indicators allow for a business-overarching depiction, analysis and comparison of current extraction processes.

Inherently, the modus operandi can be dissected into the following six tasks:
_Assembly of a process chain at the raw material extraction
_Analysis and classification of single process steps
_Selection of suitable sustainability indicators (economic, ecologic, social)
_Development of an integral assessment system
_Development and assessment of measures and odds-and-risks analyses
_Setup of a stustainability audit