Engaging with Corporations to Prevent Mining Injustices

Electric car companies and other players in the battery supply chain have a key role to play in ensuring the clean energy transition is truly clean, just and equitable.

Through our Making Clean Energy Clean, Just, & Equitable initiative, Earthworks is dedicated to a clean energy transition that avoids repeating the injustices of the fossil fuel era. We engage with EV automakers and others in the supply chain to ensure truly responsible sourcing. That means their supply chains must be equitable, sustainable and fossil-fuel free. 

This is a critical moment for climate justice. EV automakers must lead the effort to minimize demand for transition minerals, and prioritize investment in the reuse and recycling of minerals we do use in order to avoid placing burdens upon already disproportionately impacted communities.

We engage directly with automakers and other companies on their role in reducing the impacts of mining lithium, cobalt, copper, nickel, and other battery minerals:

1. We educate companies on the human and environmental consequences of mineral extraction and advise on the human rights and procurement policies and practices required to ensure responsible minerals sourcing;
2. We highlight the risks of failing to do adequate due diligence and pressure companies that fail to respect Indigenous Peoples’ right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent, or whose operations threaten human rights, workers, and the environment; and 
3. We advocate for the adoption and implementation of the highest-bar voluntary standards and government regulations that solidify corporate commitments to improve mining industry practices, protect the environment, and respect Indigenous Peoples and frontline communities. 

All of this work is directly informed by our research and the experience and knowledge of frontline communities, Indigenous Peoples, and NGO allies in mining-impacted regions.

Automakers have taken action on responsible sourcing of transition minerals by strengthening their policies’ respect for Indigenous Peoples’ right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent, and by requiring mines in their supply chain to undergo Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance audits, but more needs to be done.

With the right policies in place and by leveraging their influence over their supply chains, automakers can play a key role in building a just and sustainable renewable energy future.