UNSDGs | Hecla Mining

How Hecla is Addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

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Goal #3

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

We experienced zero employee or contractor fatalities in 2021.
Our AIFR declined 76% since 2012 and remains at a historically low level in 2021.
We provide excellent benefits for our full-time employees such as medical insurance, life insurance, long- and short-term disability, retirement provisions, and wellness programs. We are one of the few remaining companies to offer pension benefits.

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Goal #4

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities.

Workforce training is an important part of the educational continuum. Our employees and contractors worked more than 4.2 million man-hours and received approximately 49,000 hours of health and safety training.
In the communities where we operate, we partner with organizations on programs to expand employee skills and train students for careers in mining.

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Goal #6

Ensure access to clean water and sanitation.

We recognize that mining operations can directly or indirectly impact water. At each of our sites, the goal is to reduce freshwater consumption, use water efficiently, maintain water quality, recycle water and engage with communities to collaboratively manage shared water resources.
Company-wide, we recycled 39% of the water discharged in our operations.

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Goal #7

Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy.

Hecla uses renewable energy sources whenever possible to reduce our carbon footprint. 69% of Hecla’s electrical power that came from the grid was hydropower.
When our Greens Creek Mine is able to purchase surplus hydroelectricity from the local utility, that reduces the electrical bill for all ratepayers in Juneau, Alaska.

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Goal #8

Promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all.

We are the largest private employer and taxpayer in Juneau, Alaska and Wallace/Mullan, Idaho.
We provided 2,165 direct jobs, including contractors, in North America — the majority in the U.S.
We provided another 3,000+ indirect jobs.
We provided more than a $700 million direct impact company-wide for our local communities.
Our human rights policy statement is a foundation for business conduct within our workforce and along our supply chain.

Goal #13

Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

We benchmark against relevant aspects of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and continue to assess business risks associated with climate change.
We reduced our Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 11% from 2020 to 2021.
In 2021, we established rigorous sustainability targets, including maintaining a net zero (Scope 1 and 2) carbon footprint, and increasing the proportion of renewable energy in the company’s energy mix.
We achieved net zero carbon emissions in 2021.

Goal #15

Life on Land – Sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, halt biodiversity loss.

Company-wide, our operations only disturbed 3,883 acres of land—about equal in size to just two typical family farms in Montana.
Of the 8,600 acres Hecla owns in Montana, 6,400 of that are being used to preserve wildlife habitat.
We have committed more than $180 million toward reclamation projects.