At FuturePlanet, in collaboration with Teck, a leading Canadian resource company, we are exploring collaboration in the critical minerals value chain, and will start to share and include you in that journey.
Critical minerals impact all of us, from electric buses and cars to power distribution and windmills. The demand will only get greater and we must make sure that we conserve, reuse and reduce our impact on the planet and peoples.
There are two sides to this statement.
First, critical minerals are not called “critical” because we’re about to run out. In most cases, there’s actually enough of these minerals in the Earth.
The real challenge is where they are. These minerals aren’t spread evenly around the world. Many of them are concentrated in just a few countries, which means those countries end up controlling a big part of the supply.
That becomes a problem to solve when demand shoots up—as it is now. Electric cars, wind turbines, batteries, power grids… all of them rely on the same materials. If supply is disrupted or produced by a small group of players, everything slows down. That includes the global green energy transition.
In this Why We Mine podcast episode, They give rare earths as an example—a group of critical minerals like neodymium and dysprosium, which are essential for electric motors in cars but also in direct drive wind turbines.
Without neodynium and dysprosium, many clean technologies become harder or more expensive to make at scale. These materials are difficult to substitute with equally effective alternatives today, and recycling rates are still very low.
Second, mining these minerals has real impacts on people and nature.
Mining has great impact on land, pollute water, and harm local ecosystems. These effects are often felt most strongly by the communities living closest to mining sites.
There can also be social challenges, such as worker safety, community disruption, and questions around how fairly the benefits of mining are shared. That said, the need for supply chain transparency and responsible sourcing and mining practices with clear principles has never been more important.
Increased collaboration is needed in the critical minerals value chain to ensure responsible production occurs from extraction to recycling.
Growing from our learnings in the Sodexo Community of Practice, in collaboration with Teck, a leading Canadian resource company, we are bringing key actors in the value chain together to explore where they can collaborate.
Do critical minerals impact your work at all? Are you working with an organisation that is adjacent or connected to critical minerals? Comment below if you'd like to be included in this collaboration.
Talking about these themes openly and publicly is great way to co-create influence and momentum towards solving these challenges.
So we took time to create the FuturePlanet Principles for Effective Collaboration.
Sitting with both spaces, this is how the difference between Chatham House and FuturePlanet has come into focus for us.
FuturePlanet
Designed to go beyond dialogue and get to action. Conversations are a springboard for collaboration, co-creation and impact — helping people take real steps together.
Chatham House
Prioritizes anonymity, which protects candour but can limit emotional connection and trust-building.
FuturePlanet
Encourages authentic sharing and personal storytelling (with consent). This deepens trust, empathy, and the kind of meaningful relationships that create a resilient community and lead to long-term collaboration.
Chatham House
Focuses on what individuals can say safely in a protected environment.
FuturePlanet
An interconnected community, where insights are shared to connect people, growing collective intelligence, and scale systemic change - together.
Holding these reflections together, we recognise the enduring value of Chatham House Rules.
We then build on that foundation, leaning further into the strengths of the community that we have co-created with our changemakers. Eight years of learning, listening, and evolving have shown us what truly helps our members feel supported, trusted, and confident enough to champion this space.
From there, we’ve distilled below how we collaborate into FuturePlanet 7 Principles for Effective Collaboration below.
At FuturePlanet, we believe knowledge is most powerful when it sparks action, and action comes from relevance and connection. We share insights openly, attribution is encouraged, but optional.
Our connection and trust grows when we speak from the heart. We create safety for each of us to share. Personal stories and sensitive information stay in the group.
Insights should inspire others with confidence and the ability to act. Share thoughtfully. How did you do this? How can someone else act?
We each have something to offer and are generous with our sharing. Just as you receive insight from the group, give something thoughtful back. A perspective, a connection, or an update.
When we share openly, it leaves space for others to lean in. Be open about with sharing intentions and insights, and receive others with empathy and care.
Whether innovators, policy makers, pioneers and practitioners, we are all on the journey together and can help each other to play our role. Our members share openly and create space to nurture ideas and innovation.
FuturePlanet is actively connecting people with similar challenges or goals. Insights should help people find partners, spark ideas, and build momentum. Collaboration isn’t passive, it’s something we build together. We collectively tend our garden of connection, challenges and solutions, committing to contribute to the whole.
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These principles reflect how collaboration already shows up in our community.
Below you'll find reflections from our community members, showing how these ways of working have enabled confidence, action, and success in their journey.
You have created such a wonderful atmosphere of positivity and support and that radiated out in the room. It was fascinating for me too to talk with some of the ESG professionals about their work and get under the hood of how this all works.
It's really fascinating hearing everybody's different approaches to some of the challenges they're facing. Amongst the common challenges, we also have common values, it was very uniting to feel that sense of solidarity.
Being a part of this community for the last couple of years has been immensely helpful. It further highlights that working in sustainability is a collaborative action with shared common goals and hearing the perspectives of those in different sectors with similar challenges has been incredibly powerful.
What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments.
And...
If this way of collaborating and supporting each other resonates, we’d love to explore how we can help you achieve your goals. Apply for membership below.
Join an industry group! There are so many brilliant ones out there in sector like Future Planet. Our voices are stronger as one and these networks are wonderfully supportive.
Being part of the Future Planet Community has been genuinely rewarding. The connections I've received and the introductions I’ve made through the network have led to tangible impact, sparking collaborations, accelerating sustainability initiatives, and opening doors to innovation.
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