Exploring the adoption of voluntary sustainability initiatives in mining battery minerals

Mendonça Severiano, Bernardo

Exploring the adoption of voluntary sustainability initiatives in mining battery minerals

Mendonça Severiano, Bernardo

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Publication Type:: Thesis
Issue Date:: 2025

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Mendonça Severiano, Bernardo
dc.date.accessioned	2026-06-15T03:39:49Z
dc.date.available	2026-06-15T03:39:49Z
dc.date.issued	2025
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/195363
dc.description	University of Technology Sydney. Institute for Sustainable Futures.	en_US.UTF-8
dc.description.abstract	The clean energy transition has intensified demand for lithium, nickel, manganese, and cobalt, yet mining these battery minerals generates significant environmental and social impacts. Voluntary Sustainability Initiatives (VSIs) have emerged as one response, but their adoption, diffusion, and real capacity to mitigate impacts remain unclear. This thesis investigates how and why VSIs are taken up in the battery minerals sector, the pathways through which they spread, and the extent to which they can reduce environmental burdens. A multi-method framework integrates a thematic synthesis of drivers and barriers, participatory system dynamics modelling, network analysis of industry associations, and prospective life cycle assessment. Together, these methods reveal systemic feedbacks shaping adoption, highlight the influence of national and transnational associations on diffusion, and quantify the environmental benefits achievable through VSI-aligned practices. The findings show that meaningful mitigation requires both site-specific operational improvements and strong accountability mechanisms, without which VSIs risk devolving into greenwashing rather than driving genuine sustainability gains.	en_US.UTF-8
dc.format	Thesis (PhD)
dc.language.iso	en_US	en_US.UTF-8
dc.relation	https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/195363/1/thesis.pdf
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights	The author owns the copyright in this thesis including all reproduction and reuse rights for the work. The work may not be altered without the permission of the copyright owner. Attribution is essential when quoting or paraphrasing from this thesis.
dc.rights	© 2025 Bernardo Mendonça Severiano
dc.rights	au.edu.uts.lib/cph
dc.title	Exploring the adoption of voluntary sustainability initiatives in mining battery minerals	en_US.UTF-8
dc.type	Thesis
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*

Abstract:

The clean energy transition has intensified demand for lithium, nickel, manganese, and cobalt, yet mining these battery minerals generates significant environmental and social impacts. Voluntary Sustainability Initiatives (VSIs) have emerged as one response, but their adoption, diffusion, and real capacity to mitigate impacts remain unclear. This thesis investigates how and why VSIs are taken up in the battery minerals sector, the pathways through which they spread, and the extent to which they can reduce environmental burdens. A multi-method framework integrates a thematic synthesis of drivers and barriers, participatory system dynamics modelling, network analysis of industry associations, and prospective life cycle assessment. Together, these methods reveal systemic feedbacks shaping adoption, highlight the influence of national and transnational associations on diffusion, and quantify the environmental benefits achievable through VSI-aligned practices. The findings show that meaningful mitigation requires both site-specific operational improvements and strong accountability mechanisms, without which VSIs risk devolving into greenwashing rather than driving genuine sustainability gains.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/195363