Leadership Insights:
Human-Centered Approach

“Climate change is a human crisis. When we start to think about ‘just transition’ from a climate change perspective, it’s really taking a human centered approach.”

Nick Cotts
Senior Vice President, External Relations

Nick Cotts, Senior Vice President, External Relations, shares why it’s important that companies take a human-centered approach as it relates to a ‘just transition.’ 

What does it mean to manage risk and adapt to the impacts of climate change?

Climate change is occurring and it is having an impact on people, world health and wellness. There is an interaction with nature and an interaction overall in terms of shared resources with people. That’s food, water security and more — basically all the resources that people need to live. The risk climate change presents, and the world’s need to decarbonize, also has to be addressed with respect to the direct impact it’s having on how people live and engage with the environment, as well as how species and ecosystems live and engage with the environment. Newmont’s purpose is to create value, and value comes in many different forms. So, in addressing climate change, it’s not just the monetary value, the economic value that you generate by addressing the problem, there’s also the value of sustaining the planet, sustaining people’s lives, understanding what the impacts of addressing climate change are, and making sure that you leave a situation better than you found it.

How do you see decarbonization and adaptation interacting, benefiting or negatively impacting people and the environment?

We’re working in host communities, we know we’re working in places where the communities may not have the same level of economic development as North America or other countries and regions. In those cases, we need to be mindful that we’re going into an area and saying, basically, “All right, maybe it’s more important to plant trees or wetlands in this area to help support it.” However, we have to take into consideration that the people were using that land for their food, water and other resources, including economic, that they need. We work with multiple stakeholders. While shareholders are one stakeholder group we work with, we also work in partnership with local communities, NGOs, other industries, governments - and then we have to get a good understanding of the context on the ground.

What is Newmont’s climate strategy, and how does it incorporate risk management and resiliency?

Newmont recognizes that you must consider and implement mitigation and adaptation together, and that starts with understanding risk and building adaptations and resiliency into our operations, working in collaboration with host communities. Newmont recognizes that climate change is not the only area that we need to focus on. We know that it’s important to look at climate change from multiple perspectives and to integrate climate solutions in a way that allows us to create a nature-positive future.