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Sustainability is a major challenge for India’s (Bharat’s) coal mining industry. The government has prioritized sustainable growth in the coal mining industry. It is putting forth multifaceted economic, environmental and social efforts to accomplish the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This research aims to identify the factors for sustainable improvements in coal mining operations. Secondly, this study examines the intensity of causal relations among the factors. Thirdly, this study examines whether causal relations exist among the factors to be considered for sustainable improvement in coal mining operations. Lastly, the study aims to understand how the factors ensure sustainable improvement in coal mining operations.

An integrated three-phase methodology was applied to identify the critical factors related to coal mining and explore the contextual relationships among the identified factors. Fifteen critical factors were selected based on the Delphi technique. Subsequently, the fifteen factors were analyzed to determine the contextual and causal relationships using the total interpretive structural modelling (TISM) and DEMATEL methods.

The study identified “Extraction of Coal and Overburden” as the leading factor for sustainable improvement in coal mining operations, because it directly or indirectly influences the overall mining operation, environmental impact and resource utilization. Hence, strict control measures are necessary in “Extraction of Coal and Overburden” to ensure sustainable coal mining. Conversely, “Health Impact” is the lagging factor as it has very low or no impact on the system. Therefore, it requires fewer control mechanisms. Nevertheless, control measures for the remaining factors must be decided on a priority basis.

The proposed structural model can serve as a framework for enhancing sustainability in India’s (Bharat’s) coal mining operations. This framework can also be applied to other developing nations with similar sustainability concerns, providing valuable guidance for sustainable operations.

The current study highlights the significance of logical links and dependencies between several parameters essential to coal mining sustainability. Furthermore, it leads to the development of a well-defined control sequence that identifies the causal linkages between numerous components needed to achieve real progress towards sustainability.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an explanation for the global influences and dynamics that have led major mining companies to adopt corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies, and frame them in terms of sustainable development. Bad reputations stemming from environmental disasters and social disharmony led mining multinationals to adopt CSR policies and improve their practices. Rationalist expectations about what is driving firm responses to external pressures are a necessary, but insufficient, explanation of how and why mining companies have sought to improve their reputations. Three elements are necessary to explain firm responses, including strategic adaptation to external pressures, learning processes associated with CSR, and internalization of sustainable development norms, understood as standards of appropriate behavior.

The paper presents a multidisciplinary theoretical framework for explaining the adoption of CSR policies and practices on the part of mining companies, and applies that framework to case studies of two major mining companies with global operations.

An account of learning processes and norms socialization as they relate to CSR provide a more comprehensive explanation of how and why mining companies adopt CSR policies. Incorporation of these elements provides a better explanation of why mining companies began to frame their CSR policies in terms of the global norm of sustainable development.

The paper contributes to the theoretical understanding of how and why firms adapt to changing societal expectations about appropriate corporate behavior by integrating two sets of literatures; constructivism from international relations theory, and learning from organization theory.

Purpose – To review the performance and growth of mining industry in India against current global vision and trend of the industrial growth internationally. Also, to evolve the strategic policy for evaluating Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme initiatives taken by the Indian mining industry at large as well as the impacts thereof, with special reference to affected and most vulnerable mining belts in India.Design/methodology/approach – An attempt has been made in the chapter to have a holistic sectoral review of the overall performance of the mining industry in India for the past one decade, as well as its claimed impact on improvement of ecological quality and socio-economic growth in the mining belts. The chapter reviews the state of the impact of ‘CSR’ initiatives and programmes on environment as well as the mining community in terms of stakeholders’ involvement and protection of rights in developing socio-economic business equity. The chapter also critically analyses the policy dimensions – including mining industry's operational framework, which can attribute towards developing future strategy for sustainable development of the mining industry at large, through evolving a series of reform processes, adequately backed up by innovative CSR policy and programme initiatives, together with well-defined implementation, monitoring, evaluation strategies and standards.Findings – The mining industries in India have a huge potential for growth to support the other industries for which bulk of the raw materials are derived from this industrial segment. Several research and developmental studies conducted by different organisations spread across the globe have convincingly been able to link the prospect of industrial growth and long-term sustainability with the stakeholders’ participatory and proactive roles along with those of the industry for holistic and integrated socio-economic development of the mining areas. This has been possible through careful designing of the CSR programmes and initiatives by several mining companies in India (with varying degree of success and failures) with close monitoring and performance evaluation of the impact of the programmes in ecological, economical and sustainability terms against certain pre-designed standards. Such standards – as they are constantly evolving – should inter alia include ethical and transparency dimensions to ensure total involvement of the local community in the mining-affected areas. Proper compensation mechanisms and socio-economic growth of the mining community will not only improve productivity, but will also take care of ecological and economic safeguard of the mined coal blocks that are highly vulnerable to ecological degradation and economic exploitation. As for future strategy for sustainable industrial growth of the mining industry in India, there should be constant monitoring and evaluation of the various provisions of the various Acts related to mining, minerals, metals, energy, power, environment, etc. that are constantly under review and reforms processes with a view to guiding the future strategy. International co-operation in the mining sector will go a long way for sustainable growth and development of the mining industry in India for boosting the economic growth of the country.Research limitations/implications – Future research on the theme should focus on identification of replicable and sustainable model of CSR practices in the mining industry by developing illustrative business models on the basis of global experiences. Sustainability reporting and identification of better qualitative as well as quantitative parameters, tools and techniques to study the impact of CSR practices on the socio-economic growth of the affected mining community should be the focus of future research.Social implications – The findings (serving as messages) of this piece of research will certainly have an impact on society. This in turn, will, hopefully influence public attitudes, and by implications, it will also influence (corporate) social responsibility or environmental issues.Originality/value of the chapter – The chapter is innovative and, among other things, addresses some of recently reported burning issues affecting the interests of the mining industry on one hand, and the national economy of the affected countries on the other.

Drawing upon research on the initiatives of Canadian mining companies, this paper examines private efforts in the mining sector to promote acceptable standards of corporate social responsibility (CSR). This paper asks how important emerging global CSR norms have been in influencing the adoption of CSR policies. Sustainable development is a universally accepted principle of environmental protection, and serves as an important indicator of the influence of global CSR norms on mining companies. Most mining companies have embraced the concept of sustainable development to frame their CSR policies. Emerging global CSR norms have thereby set the macro‐level context in which CSR policies have been adopted and evolved at the micro level.

This chapter argues that sustainable development must be anchored on a human rights regime and that an integrated framing of human rights and sustainability in development policy and practice is crucial in the achievement of the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Using data gathered from the author's field research during her US Fulbright Fellowship in the Philippines in 2017, the chapter examines the impacts of corporate mining on the Philippine Indigenous people using the United Nations Declaration on the Human Rights of Indigenous People as a framework for analysis. The experience of the indigenous people shows that large scale corporate mining – largely dominated by transnational corporations – threatens their right to life, right to ancestral land, right to a healthy environment, right to education and cultural rights, right to self-determination, and the right to sustainable development. The violation of these rights threatens the Indigenous people's survival and makes their situation even more precarious during COVID-19 pandemic. State and corporate recognition of these rights is crucial to building resiliency to the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic and the survival of the indigenous people.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of artisanal small-scale mining (ASM) on sustainable livelihoods in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality of Ghana. The study seeks to answer the following questions: what is the impact of ASM on livelihoods in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality? What measures could be put in place to ensure the sustainability of livelihoods in the municipality?

A case study approach to inquiry was used in the study. The authors used interview guides (structured and unstructured) to collect primary data from a sample of 400 household heads, 19 institutions, six ASM firms, six mineral processing companies, and two gold-buying agents, and traditional authorities from the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality.

The findings of the study indicate among other things that land has been rendered unproductive due to the inability of the dominant ASM firms to reclaim lands after mining. The workers’ exposure to cyanide and mercury makes them vulnerable to all manner of health risks, which is a threat to the sustenance of livelihoods. Owing to the unsustainable nature of mining activities, the future indicates not only increases in unemployment but also environmental degradation and health concerns.

The paper contains a significant new perspective of knowledge especially by contextualising sustainable development with ASM. This is an area that has largely been ignored by development researchers. The paper further emphasises the need for policy makers to evolve and embrace developmental approach that is intergenerational.

Drawing on both the stakeholder theory and Carroll’s Corporate Social Responsibility Pyramid, this chapter explores sustainability practice challenges of a gold minning multinational enterprise in Ghana. Primary data was collected through observation and the interviewing of multi-stakeholder groups. We found that internal stakeholders perceive sustainability expenditure as costly. However, while employees of the case enterprise see the cost as depleting shareholders’ wealth, managers view them as investment with possible long-term benefits. Meanwhile, the external stakeholders perceive the gold mining enterprise’s sustainability expenditure as meagre and that beneficiary communities are not economically empowered to sustain those investments. Again, we found that government’s inability to clamp down illegal gold mining threatens economic and environmental sustainability. Additionally, members of the host community identify the lack of adequate employment opportunities within the entity as a hindrance to their economic empowerment. We submit that the resolution of the sustainability challenges would contribute to the balancing of stakeholders’ expectations: the conduct of ethical business through compliance to environmental laws; promotion of host communities’ social well-being; and improved economic returns for shareholders. By meeting the needs of stakeholders, gold mining enterprises could gain acceptance in their host communities and boost corporate reputation.

The study examines the social and environmental responsibility indicators disclosed by three International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) corporate mining members in their social and environmental reporting (SER) from 2006 to 2014. To achieve this aim, the author limits the data two years before (i.e. from 2006 to 2007) and six years after (i.e. from 2009 to 2014) the implementation of the Sustainable Development Framework in the mining sector in 2008.

Using the techniques of content analysis and interpretive textual analysis, this study examines 27 social and environmental responsibility reports published between 2006 and 2014 by three ICMM corporate mining members. The study develops a disclosure index based on the earlier work of Hackston and Milne (1996), together with other disclosure items suggested in the extant literature and considered appropriate for this work. The disclosure index for this study comprised six disclosure categories (“employee”, “environment”, “community involvement”, “energy”, “governance” and “general”). In each of the six disclosure categories, only 10 disclosure items were chosen and that results in 60 disclosure items.

A total of 830 out of a maximum of 1,620 social and environmental responsibility indicators, representing 51% (168 employees, 151 environmental, 145 community involvement, 128 energy, 127 governance and 111 general) were identified and examined in company SER. The study showed that the sample companies relied on multiple strategies for managing pragmatic legitimacy and moral legitimacy via disclosures. Such practices raise questions regarding company-specific disclosure policies and their possible links to the quality/quantity of their disclosures. The findings suggest that managers of mining companies may opt for “cherry-picking” and/or capitalise on events for reporting purposes as well as refocus on company-specific issues of priority in their disclosures. While such practices may appear appropriate and/or timely to meet stakeholders’ needs and interests, they may work against the development of comprehensive reports due to the multiple strategies adopted to manage pragmatic and moral legitimacy.

A limitation of this research is that the author relied on self-reported corporate disclosures, as opposed to verifying the activities associated with the claims by the sample mining companies.

The findings from this research will help future social and environmental accounting researchers to operationalise Suchman’s typology of legitimacy in other contexts.

With growing large-scale mining activity, potential social and environmental footprints are obviously far from being socially acceptable. Powerful and legitimacy-conferring stakeholders are likely to disapprove such mining activity and reconsider their support, which may threaten the survival of the mining company and also create a legitimacy threat for the whole mining industry.

This study innovates by focusing on Suchman’s (1995) typology of legitimacy framework to interpret SER in an industry characterised by potential social and environmental footprints – the mining industry.