Norges Bank has given Columbia University in New York a 3-year grant to study how different sustainability factors influence profitability in the mining industry.
The grant is part of a research project initiated by Norges Bank focused on the mining of copper and gold. The mining sector has seen increased challenges related to water management, deforestation, land rights, social and regulatory issues. The research project will study how different factors related to sustainability influence profitability in the mining industry.
Columbia Water Center, a center of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, in collaboration with Columbia University’s department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research and the Columbia Center on Sustainable Development, will develop a modelling platform to quantitatively assess mining-related water and environmental risks and their financial implications.
The data and models to be developed will be available to mining companies seeking to assess, manage and mitigate a broad range of environmentally induced financial risks. Other users include investors, mining companies, government regulators, non-governmental organizations and academics.
The grant must be seen in context with the updated mandate for the fund given by the Ministry of Finance. The mandate requires Norges Bank to contribute to academic research on potential causality between sustainability linked factors and financial risk and return in the long term.