Planet: protecting nature and advancing the circular economy
We are committed to minimising our environmental footprint and conserving scarce mineral resources through our manufacturing choices
2030 target
75% recycled PGM content
in JM's manufactured products
2030 target
50% reduction
in total hazardous waste1
2030 target
25% reduction
in net water usage1
1. Against 2019/20 baseline. For further information, please refer to our 2024 Annual Report.
Conserving scarce resources
Circularity is an essential part of the net zero transition, and as the world’s largest secondary refiner of platinum group metals (PGMs) we will play a crucial role in securing the metal needed to supply existing and future demand.
We are targeting 75% secondary (recycled) PGM content in JM’s manufactured products by 2030. Our increasing use of recycled PGMs is helping to significantly reduce the emissions and environmental impact associated with mining these vital materials.
Minimising our environmental impact
We are committed to protecting the ecosystems around our sites and minimising all our potentially harmful interactions.
Our global environmental, health and safety (EHS) policies, processes and management system help us to maintain a high level of environmental performance. All our sites are assessed against these standards by our central EHS audit team at least once every three years.
Our Nature strategy outlines our commitments and actions to minimise our environmental footprint, promote circularity, and enhance the local environments and communities where we operate. The strategy sets ambitious goals for the responsible use of natural resources and reinforces JM’s commitment to restoring biodiversity.
We are committed to minimising waste generation and recycling as much as possible. Our operations create waste, which is always treated in line with local regulations. But beyond that we are committed to disposing of it responsibly and in a safe manner, working with specialist treatment companies.
Our established processes recover PGMs from our production waste and subsequently recycle them in our own refineries. And we continue to work with third-party waste providers, looking for opportunities to divert our waste away from disposal. We have set ourselves a target to reduce our hazardous waste by 50% by 2030 (on baseline 2019/20 value).
Using water responsibly
We use water as a raw material to make some of our products and to heat and cool our operations. Water is one of our planet’s most precious resources and we endeavour to use it in a responsible, sustainable way.
To reaffirm our commitment to sustainable water management in our operations, we have a target to reduce our net water usage by 25% by 2030 (on baseline 2019/20 value).
Reducing emissions to air
As well as greenhouse gases (GHGs) some of our operations produce other air emissions, including nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur oxides (SOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These emissions arise when we burn fuels in our furnaces to generate heat and are also produced as byproducts in some of the chemical reactions that are involved when we make our products. All our permitted sites monitor these emissions to ensure that they comply with local regulations.
We don’t produce ozone-depleting substances (ODS) through our operations, however any small leaks of refrigerant gases are reported in our Scope 1 GHG emissions.
Product stewardship
The nature of the complex chemistry in our products and manufacturing processes means that we sometimes have to use chemicals that are potentially hazardous. JM’s product stewardship processes are central to ensuring our products should not pose any risk to humans or the environment when used responsibly and as intended, and that we comply with all relevant laws and regulations.
For further information on specific hazardous chemicals and substances of concern such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and biotechnology please refer to our Annual Report.
Product life cycle analysis (LCA) is an important way in which we can demonstrate how the environmental benefits of our products outweigh the impact of making them in the first place.
The number of LCAs for JM's products and services is increasing year on year. One example is a cradle-to-date LCA study to measure and comapre the environmental impact of JM's methanol technologies, wjhich are lciensed to customers for methanol production.
We also contribute to the International Platinum Group Metals Association (IPA)'s publicly available industry standard LCA for the five platinum group metals – Pt, Pd, Rh, Ir and Ru – which is updated annually to ISO 14001 standards.
Go back
Return to our sustainability page and explore our sustainability strategy
