ESG Statement

Concord Resources Limited (“Concord”) is a global commodities merchant (with a focus on non-ferrous metals and associated minerals). It operates by connecting suppliers and customers around the globe across the entire commodities supply chain. Concord also specialises as a commodity investor by providing structured finance, resource equity and debt investment to secure supply off-take and marketing agreements. 

Concord and is headquartered in London with offices in New York, Connecticut, and Hong Kong, also has a key investment in Atlantic Alumina Company LLC, in mining and refining operations in Jamaica and Louisiana, USA – respectively to further augment its supply chain capabilities. 

While Concord recognises that its business practices do have an environmental impact, Concord aims to be a responsible corporate citizen that leads by example when it comes to the protection of the environment and prevention of pollution. Concord manages its processes, materials, and people to reduce the negative environmental impacts associated with our operations and contribute to positive environmental improvements. 

Concord’s main environmental objectives are to: 

• Minimise and reduce greenhouse gas emissions where possible. Concord calculates these quarterly through a third-party, CarbonChain (see further below);
• Be aware of its carbon footprint, monitor progress and report the findings. The Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (”SECR”) regulations is a framework implemented by the UK Government that requires quoted and large unquoted companies to include carbon & energy information in the Directors’ Report of their Annual Report. At a minimum, these must include emissions arising from gas and electricity consumption and business travel by road, plus also a summary of energy efficiency projects undertaken & details of the methodology;
• Reduce its energy requirements, improving energy and water efficiency. At its office locations in the UK, USA and Hong Kong, Concord’s policy is to switch off monitors at the end of every day, reduce air conditioning usage, and encourage waste materials recycling; 
• Reduce its impact of their transport, by reducing the need to travel and then choosing alternative transport options where feasible;
• Manage its waste, by minimising, storing, recycling and disposing of waste and packaging in a responsible manner; and
• Investigate green procurement options, sustainable financing options and encourage our suppliers to support our objectives.

Concord’s ESG Policy provides the framework for setting and reviewing environmental objectives. Concord recognises it is increasingly being held to account for its ESG initiatives, its own carbon footprint and its activity along the commodity supply chain. 

The findings are documented, regularly reviewed, maintained, and communicated to interested parties. 

In 2023, Concord focused on building on its established commitments in line with its ESG policy as set out in the prior year’s statement. 

Concord’s efforts for this year were to build upon its existing framework whilst maintaining its forward-looking strategy in ESG. The ongoing and new geopolitical headwinds, including the war in Ukraine, conflict in the Middle East and disrupted supply chains, have had a meaningful impact on the delivery of the Green Economy globally, and whilst Concord remained well positioned to serve its customers in transitioning to the Green Economy, these events hindered further progress on forwarding these initiatives. 

Despite this however, Concord remains dedicated to deliver on these commitments in this space. 

A) Ecovadis Assessment: The EcoVadis Assessment is a comprehensive evaluation of a company's sustainability performance. It focuses on four key areas: environment, labor and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement. Concord was very pleased to be re-awarded the Silver Ecovadis Corporate Social Responsibility rating in 2023. Maintaining the Silver Rating, while improving its overall score from the prior year, was one of Concord’s commitments and one which it was able to proudly achieve, notably improving in many key areas of the scoring system. 

B) CarbonChain: The work with CarbonChain continues to progress very positively. The majority of Concord’s supply chain emissions came from the production of primary aluminium with an average intensity of 12.62 tonnes CO2e/tonne aluminium traded (vs. 12.05 tCO2e/t aluminium traded in FY 2022), resulting from the high average emissions intensity of aluminium production. This relates both to Concord’s focus upon aluminium trading – it was Concord’s most frequently traded commodity in 2023 – and the high average emissions intensity of aluminium production, which is dominated by the smelting step. Concord’s total supply chain emissions for 2023 was 5.8M tCO2e (vs 8.5M (10.9M) tCO2e in 2022) for 2M tonnes of metal, with an average carbon intensity of 2.83 tCO2e/t, compared to 3.25 tCO2e/t in 2022.

C) SECR Carbon Reporting and Calculations

Concord’s SECR carbon emissions for our calendar year 2023 for the UK amounted to 9.8 tCO2e, all from electricity. Absolute emissions have risen by 8% since last year

Energy consumption

47,304 kWh (2023)
46,708 kWh (2022)

Scope 1 (Direct emissions)

– (2023)
– (2022)

Scope 2 (Energy Indirect Emissions)

9.8 tCO2e (2023)
8.9 tCO2e (2022)

Scope 3 (Other Indirect Emissions)

– (2023)
0.2 tCO2e (2022)

Total SECR Emissions, tCO2e

9.8 tCO2e (2023)
9.1 tCO2e (2022)
8% change

Relative SECR Emissions, normalised by turnover, tCO2e/$billion

3.5 tCO2e/$billion (2023)
2.3 tCO2e/$billion (2022)
56% change

As ever, Concord is looking to reduce its operational carbon footprint, concentrating on office energy and business travel, setting carbon reduction targets.

However, the environmental impact of Concord’s wider activities in materials trading is so much greater. The ‘cradle to grave’ impacts of extraction, processing and transport of the metals have now been quantified. This is supported by Concords ESG policies.

Concord has reported on all of the emission sources required by SECR, under the Companies Act 2006 (Directors’ Report).

Concord has followed the methodology of ISO 14064-1 (specification with guidance at the organisation level for quantification and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and removals) and emission factors from the UK Government GHG Conversion Factors for Company Reporting 2023.  

For SECR reporting (which covers their UK operations only) , Scope 1 (Direct) emissions are those arising from natural gas heating and company vehicles. Scope 2 (Energy Indirect) emissions are from electricity. Scope 3 (Other Indirect) emissions come from grey fleet and hire vehicles.

The Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (“ESOS”) is a mandatory energy assessment and energy-saving identification scheme established by the ESOS Regulations 2014 in the UK. ESOS requires large companies to review their energy consumption and identify improvement opportunities. This must be done every four years, covering UK operations only, and reported to the regulator.

Using the SECR data given above, Concord carried out energy audit of its London office, which was found to have good energy practices, such as efficient lighting. Some improvement opportunities of heating and equipment were proposed.

Clear Sky Limited

During 2023, Concord continued to support the work of its joint venture company, ClearSky. Concord maintains that investing in regulated and voluntary carbon offset markets will have an important role to play in the progression towards a carbon neutral world, especially for industries with emissions that cannot be eliminated or reduced through investment and operational optimisation. Over the course of the year, ClearSky built the team and started to execute its business plan concluding carbon offset sales and expanding the team to include the facilitation of renewable energy credit transactions. ClearSky also began to pursue investments directly in environmental credit producing projects globally. Concord supports the view that carbon trading has the potential to enhance Concord’s strategic position in the sector.

Sustainable Financing

In 2023, Concord, together with one of its trade financing banks, continued to use the CarbonChain data to identify and benchmark certain ESG/CO2 targets for Concord’s business (including establishing certain Key Performance Indicators or “KPIs”). At this stage, the arrangement continues to operate building from the initial 12-month pilot to enable Concord to understand the logistics of how such ESG targets would work. As a result, there is no immediate discount or premium in terms of cost of funding for meeting these KPIs. And indeed, there is no obligation on Concord to enter into any final KPI programme but knowing that many of our financing banks are leaning towards these types of criteria, it is a good opportunity to test the process before Concord has to commit and these KPIs could in the future form the basis for a Sustainability-linked loan. The KPIs included in the 2023 programme were:

• Within the whole Concord trading portfolio, decrease carbon intensive trades by 9% and increase green trades by 23% over the next twelve months.
• Within the bank-financed portion of the Concord trading portfolio, decrease carbon intensive trades by 9% and increase green trades by 23% over the next twelve months.
• Within the whole Concord trading portfolio, reduce the average carbon intensity of aluminium traded by Concord over the next twelve months by at least 10%.

Concord continues to invest its liquidity into an ESG-enhanced Money Market Fund. The ESG enhancements are considered alongside the core investment objectives of capital preservation and daily liquidity and the aim is to make better investment decisions whilst encouraging positive change in investment behaviour.