Partnerships

Performance indicator

None at present

Current position

The industry is involved with land-use, mineral extraction and supply, manufacturing, recycling and site restoration. As such, we have a very wide range of stakeholders at European, national, regional and local level, including government departments, agencies, client organisations, non-government organisations, and local communities.

This is the only core value currently without measurable indicators assigned to it. There are, however, many good examples of beneficial partnerships:

Minerals and nature conservation forum

This forum between the QPA and English Nature was established to be able to develop the potential of mineral extraction as a contributor to biodiversity and geodiversity.

HSE

This relationship has been established to dramatically reduce the number of accidents in the industry.

Partnership on asphalt

The QPA is working with the Highways Agency and Refined Bitumen Association on research into the performance and sustainability of asphalt.

Other product partnerships

Projects are regularly set up with other organisations to tackle research into areas of technical development. A number of these have been enabled through the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund, for example researching additional uses for materials generated during the production of premium aggregates, such as quarry fines. Details of such research can be obtained from the Mineral Industry Research Organisation (MIRO).

Each relationship across this wide spectrum has been established to tackle, in partnership, a specific issue. The industry always finds that working with other organisations adds strength and credibility to the outcome. Such partnerships can contribute across the full spectrum of sustainable development issues.

Aspirations

Our sustainable development strategy will act as a catalyst to both improve and extend our relationships with stakeholders. This engagement will help to define priorities in terms of sustainability and identify any new partnerships that would be beneficial. Simply counting these areas of engagement is not a meaningful way of accounting for the activity and its contribution to sustainable development. We would like to encourage feedback on this challenge and ask for suggestions on what we should measure and report.