Gestão estratégica do uso da água e a sua relação com o desempenho empresarial: um estudo em indústrias do setor mineral

Abstract

The importance of sustainable development is increasing in the context of organizations. Understanding corporate sustainability, combining economic prosperity, social responsibility and environmental aspects, represents a challenge for the companies. In this sense, we highlight the importance of assessing business performance in an integrated manner to these prospects, through aspects that go beyond the economic indicators, but that consider the environmental and social performance. The Brazilian mining sector industries are inserted in this context. Despite its importance in the economic context, where it's known as the base for the development of several supply chains, and its importance on source of energy, the mining is an essentially extractive activity, through the intense relationship with the environment, and it's considered one of the largest water users in this country. It's known that water is a strategic resource for mining. The technical and economic viability of a mining industry is conditioned upon the adequate knowledge of the hydrological context that it's located and the subsequent water/mining interaction, which highlights the need for an adequate management of water usage in this sector. In this sense, this research aims at identifying the relationship between the water use management and the business performance in the Brazilian mining industries. The research is divided into two stages, developed in parallel. The quantitative stage, with a descriptive approach and a broad perspective, was operationalized by a survey method, with industries of the Brazilian Mining Institute (IBRAM). The qualitative stage, exploratory in nature, was made with a particular perspective, through a multiple case study. The water use management was identified using the model proposed by Ceres (2010) and the business performance was evaluated based on the indicators of the Global Reporting Initiative - GRI (2006, 2010). The results indicate a positive and significant relationship between the management of water use and the business performance. It could be seen, in both approaches, the importance of water use management in the mining industry context and the outlook in terms of results, through achieving superior performance in terms of economic, environmental and social. It were identified some differences in the water use management and in the business performance according to size of companies, in that the smaller companies had lower averages compared to the others. The results presented allow the discussion of issues related to water use, in a management perspective, and its impact on business performance. This findings aren't restricted to the mineral sector, but may bring contributions to other sectors of the economy, where the water use management is critical for a sustainable industry in economic, social and environmental aspects.