Exploratory workshop: Deep sea mining, responsible business conduct, and sustainability due diligence: knowledge gaps and research opportunities for a just and fair transition.

14-15 April 2025, CBS.

Day one (14 April): The overall research challenge, issues and framing

9:00-9:30 Arrival (tea and coffee)

9:30-9:50: Welcome (Karin Buhmann) with brief introduction to the FRONTIERS project and its overall research agenda and topics

9:50-10:30: Introductions (name; title and affiliation; research in areas related to the FRONTIERS topics)

10:30-12:30: Introductory presentations to kick off the discussion (1) (30 min. presentations + 10 minute Q&A)

Karin Buhmann, CBS: Deep Sea Mining (DSM): Why a Business and Human Rights approach and what it may contribute

Joao Bettencourt, University of Bergen: DSM – between geology and economy

Brigt Dale, Nordland Research Institute, Norway: DSM in Norwegian politics and space

12:30-13:30 Lunch

13.30-14.10: Introductory presentations to kick off the discussion (2)

Hans Krause-Hansen, CBS: The International Seabed Authority and Governing Oceanic Space: Struggles of Classification and Valuation in DSM

14.10-15:00: Walk-and-talk (Frederiksberg Have)

15:00-15:15: Coffee/tea

15:15-16:45 Discussion: What we know, what we don’t know, what we need to know (moderator: Karin Buhmann)

                      Tentative list of issues for inspiration:

                      Extraction and extractivism:

Differences, similarities and connections between land-based/terrestrial

mining and DSM

                      Politics and economies:        

Climate change mitigation urgencies, business cases and finance

Business, human rights, and responsible transitions

Sustainability due diligence (SDD) and Meaningful Stakeholder Engagement (MSE) (focus on affected stakeholders external to operations), e.g. communities: Indigenous and Non-Indigenous; ranges of impacts: health, food, incomes, professional training, participation, …; the environment: forests, rivers, lakes, mountains and soil, …; the ocean: ocean life, food chains; fishing communities; the ocean as a carbon sink; …

                      Governance, spaces and transition minerals 

Complementary and competing governance regimes and forms

                      Discussion panel: Advisory Board

Comments and input from the audience

16:45-17: Summing up on research gaps and challenges; preliminary reflections on methodological challenges to respond to those [preparation for Day two] (moderator: Karin Buhmann)

Day two (15 April): Operationalisation, methods and direction

8:45-9: Arrival (tea and coffee)

9-9:30: Recap: brief round of reflections after Day One (moderator: Karin Buhmann)

9:30-10:30: Presentations by visiting scholars (moderator: Mark Stoddart)

9:30-9:50: Dr Gaopalelwe Mathiba, Senior lecturer, Dpt of Private Law, University of Cape Town, South Africa: Research with mining communities in South Africa: methodological considerations for collecting empirical data (15 min presentation, 5 min Q&A)

9:50-10:10: Dr Samentha Goethals, Assistant Professor in Business and Society at SKEMA Business School, France: Methodological reflections on doing research with affected people (and the environment) within a BHR and MSE context (15 min presentation, 5 min Q&A)

10:10-10:30: Discussion: insights and lessons for FRONTIERS research, including for research dealing with the environment and nature as affected stakeholders from an MSE perspective.

10:30-10:45: Break (tea and coffee)

10:45-12:30 Presentations and discussion of ongoing FRONTIERS research by junior scholars (moderator: Hans Krause-Hansen)

10:45-11:20: Helga Asgaard Estrup (20 minute presentation; 15 minute Q&A and specific feedback)

11.20-11:55: Jakob Lutz (20 minute presentation; 15 minute Q&A and specific feedback)

11:55-12:30: Dr Raphaël Deberdt (Post-Doc to join the project from 15 September 2026) (20 minute presentation; 15 minute Q&A and specific feedback) [online]

12:30-13:00: general discussion of methods challenges, options and suggestions (Advisory Panel and general audience)

13-14: Lunch

14-15: Strategic issues: research, practice, and researching an evolving agenda: general discussion (moderator: Karin Buhmann)

Green Business Forum 17 April 2024 – 10:30-12: Responsible mining, value & investment chains for minerals, the role of corporate sustainability due diligence and investors’ influence

Cross-cutting panel: Responsible mining, value and investment chains for minerals for the transition, and the role of corporate sustainability due diligence and investors’ influence 

The transition to low-greenhouse-gas (GHG) economies generates a huge demand for minerals for solar power panels, wind turbines and batteries for electric vehicles and other energy storage. However, mining is also associated with harmful environmental impacts, poor labour conditions and strained community relations. These sustainability challenges, along with other factors, are spurring calls and plans for pushing the resource frontier from land-based mining into the oceans by developing deep-sea mining. Such mining, in turn, may cause risks to the eco-system of which we understand very little so far.

On that complex backdrop, this panel explores the inter-relationship between responsible transition-related mining and mineral value chains, corporate sustainability due diligence, and pressure from institutional investors. Institutional investors have important roles to play as they are called upon to finance low-GHG energy production and the required access to minerals.

Panelists:

• Joel Frijhoff, Sustainable Supply Chain Manager and Programme Lead, Ørsted

• Rasmus Windfeld, Head of Media Relations/External Communication, FLSmidth Roya

• Amanda Zarrehparvar Høvsgaard, Senior Advisor – Business & Human Rights, DanChurchAid

• Dr. João Bettencourt, ocean scientist, Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen

• Troels Børrild, Head of Responsible Investments, AkademikerPension

Introduction and moderation by Professor Karin Buhmann, Dept of Management, Society & Communication, Copenhagen Business School

This cross-cutting panel will engage with several themes from the overall list for the 2024 Green Business Forum, in particular

• Energy and natural resources

• Regulation

• Leadership

• Global perspectives

• Green Investments and finance.

The session’s panel is comprised of Danish organizations that have taken a leadership role in the provision of low-GHG energy, exploring and addressing adverse social or environmental impacts associated with terrestrial (land-based) mining practices, including through corporate sustainability due diligence and investors’ influence; and researchers who will explain some fundamental aspects, dilemmas and knowledge-gaps surrounding deep-sea mining. The panel is moderated by Professor Karin Buhmann (Department of Management, Society and Communication, CBS), who was recently awarded a Carlsberg Semper Ardens grant for the five-year research project ‘Frontiers of natural resource and sustainability governance for a just energy transition’ to explore issues informing the panel.

Check the full program at the Green Office website.

Register for the event right here.