54 Time April 25/May 2, 2022
MakeMiningGreenin her 16-year career in The mining indus-
try, Renee Grogan has battled hostile environ-
ments, arduous work conditions, and the percep-
tion that women don’t belong at a mine site—let
alone in a mining- company boardroom. But her
biggest battle has only just begun: getting climate-
conscious car buyers to care as much about how
the metals going into their new electric- vehicle
(EV) batteries are mined as they do about their car-
bon emissions. “Consumers don’t generally know
what their metal footprint looks like,” says Grogan,
the co-founder and chief sustainability officer of
California- based Impossible Mining, a battery-
metal mining startup. “But if you are driving an
electric car because you think you are doing good
for the world, wouldn’t you want to make sure your
car battery isn’t actually making things worse?”
As demand for EVs rises, so too does the need for
the metals that go into their batteries—nickel, co-
balt, copper, and lithium, among others. With land-
based mines already at peak production and dogged
by allegations of environmental and human- rights
abuses, mining companies are looking to the Pacific
Ocean, where trillions of potato-like nuggets made
up of nickel, cobalt, and manganese are strewn
across the floor of the Clarion- Clipperton Zone.
Mining in the region could start as early as next
year, once the International Seabed Authority (ISA)AN EXECUTIVE TRIES TO REGULATE HER OWN
INDUSTRY—FOR THE EARTH’S SAKE BY ARYN BAKER
INNOVATION
starts granting licenses. According to mining com-
panies investing in seabed metals, the polymetallic
nodules could be vacuumed up with minimal en-
vironmental impact. Marine biologists disagree,
arguing that there hasn’t been enough research on
the complex undersea environment to understand
the potential impact. More than 600 marine sci-
entists and policy experts have signed a statement
calling for a moratorium on undersea mining until
more research is done. BMW, Google, Samsung,
and Volkswagen, among others, have supported
similar moratoriums.
Grogan starts from a different place. A ban on
seabed mining, she says, will only shift the envi-
ronmental burden to land-based metal mining,
which destroys ecosystems while leaving a toxic
legacy of tailings ponds—the water facilities en-
gineered to store leftover materials from mining
processes—and pollution runoff from refineries. A
better alternative, Grogan argues, would be to set a
new standard for responsible battery- mineral min-
ing wherever it takes place. To power that cleaner
future, Grogan has launched an initiative to push
for an independent standards body that would re-
quire mining companies to avoid habitat destruc-
tion at sea and on land, eliminate toxic waste, pre-
serve biodiversity, protect communities, maintain
freshwater sources, and stay carbon neutral. Her