The Seven Questions to Sustainability (7QS) Assessment Framework

Development of the Seven Questions to Sustainability (7QS) Assessment Framework was motivated by a desire to apply the ideas of sustainability in a practical way on the ground—in a way that is meaningful to explorer, mine manager, mill superintendent, community leader or public interest group. To address this challenge, MMSD – North America convened a work group of 35 individuals representing a broad range of interests and charged them with developing a set of practical principles, criteria and/or indicators that could be used to guide or test mining/minerals activities in terms of their compatibility with concepts of sustainability.

Work on this front began with a review of 10 recent initiatives from government, the mining industry, non-government organizations, indigenous people and the financial services sector. Authors of seven of these contributions were at the table. After significant deliberation, seven topics were identified that were deemed essential for consideration. For each of these, a question was crafted to be applied to any given project or operation.

From the Seven Questions falls a hierarchy of objectives, indicators and specific metrics. Simultaneously, the starting point for assessing the degree of progress is provided by an “ideal answer” to the initial question. In this way a single, initial motivating question—is the net contribution to sustainability positive or negative over the long term?—cascades into progressively more detailed elements which can be tailored to the project or operation being assessed.

The Tahltan Mining Symposium (April 4-6, 2003) was one application of the 7QS framework. The IISD Mining/Minerals Team is pursuing additional opportunities to test the framework in mining and other sectors.

The Seven Questions to Sustainability publication is available in English and Spanish.