Rio Tinto sustainability score: 23/100
Rio Tinto is a global mining and metals company producing iron ore, copper and aluminium. It is one of the world's largest diversified miners, with ~61,000 employees and FY2025 revenue of US$57.6 billion.
Founded 1962Head office London, United KingdomStaff ~61,000 (FY2025)Revenue US$57,638M consolidated sales revenue (FY2025)Website ↗
Rio Tinto reports comprehensive climate data but its equity-basis emissions rose year on year. Its Scope 1 and 2 cuts rely partly on unbundled renewable certificates; it lacks an overall Scope 3 reduction goal and faces multiple regulatory convictions for water and effluent violations.
Rio Tinto scores 23/100 (Significant gaps) on SINK's independent climate assessment, scored from public data only. Scores are free. Companies can never pay for anything about their own score. Last verified November 2026.
That places Rio Tinto joint 849th of 934 companies scored, and joint 8th of 13 in Mining & Extraction.
What is Rio Tinto doing well, and where does it fall short?
Strongest on Carbon Footprint: Operations and Transparency & Accountability (8/10, 8/10). Weakest on Emissions Trajectory and Resource Use & Waste (2/10, 3/10).
Where Rio Tinto lost points
For each question that lost points, the evidence our public rubric looks for that we didn't find.
- Emissions from its own operations8/10No verified figures published with their method and a falling trend.
- Emissions from its supply chain7/10No full value-chain map or supplier engagement programme.
- Whether its emissions are falling2/10No evidence its emissions are falling, not even from energy bills or mileage.
- How clean its energy is5/10Less than half its energy shown to be renewable, or no transition plan.
- Its effect on nature4/10Its effect on nature isn't measured or independently verified.
- How it uses materials and handles waste3/10No active waste reduction, reuse or repair shown.
- Its effect on water4/10No measured water footprint with reduction targets.
- Its climate targets4/10Its targets aren't science-based or committed to the Science Based Targets initiative.
- How openly it reports8/10No mission-locked structure, such as B Corp certification.
- Its record on controversies3/10Points deducted for controversies or its business model. The finding is under question 10.
A score changes when the evidence does. We use new published evidence at the next rescore. Anyone can send us new evidence, free. How to send it.
How is Rio Tinto's SINK score calculated?
Same ten questions for every company. No private weighting.
SINK = (0.3 × Base + 0.7 × Performance) × ScaleHas Rio Tinto's score changed?
Rio Tinto's score has moved from 20 to 23 across 2 recorded reviews, up 3 points.
- 20 → 23+33 November 2026
Agent-mode re-score: Q10 -3 for two Fisheries Act (Canada) convictions and -2 for trade-association memberships LobbyMap names.
- Scored 208 February 2026
Initial score at platform launch
What evidence is Rio Tinto's score based on?
13 sources used in this assessment. All publicly available. Each row shows which of the ten questions it informed.
15% of them were published by Rio Tinto itself; the rest come from independent sources.
11 of 13 sources are independent of the company.
“reasonable assurance of our Scope 1 and 2 emissions, and limited assurance of Scope 3 emissions.”
“However, it still does not have an overall medium or long-term scope 3 reduction target.”
“the company does not appear to be on track to meet its 2030 emissions reduction targets”
“The deal announced on Wednesday is to take 80 per cent of the output of the 1.4 gigawatt (GW) Bungaban wind energy project”
“we aim to achieve no net loss (NNL) at our managed operations by the end of closure.”
“The foundation said it had urged the mine and railway developers, Winning Consortium Simandou and Rio Tinto, to significantly increase their investments in mitigating and offsetting the negative impacts of the railway.”
“The Simandou project involves four extensive mining blocks in a globally recognized biodiversity hotspot in southeastern Guinea”
“On 22 March 2023 we disclosed our operations' surface water allocation, latest annual water usage”
“Rio Tinto Fer et Titane inc. was sentenced by the Court of Québec to pay fines totalling $2 million after pleading guilty to eight counts”
“to pay two fines totalling $600,000 dollars, after pleading guilty to two counts of violating the Fisheries Act.”
“Rio Tinto retains membership in several associations that display oppositional advocacy on specific climate policies, including the Minerals Council of Australia , US Chamber of Commerce”
“contained an appeal to remove climate change requirements such as carbon emissions as a trigger for assessment.”
“Jason Masters said Rio Tinto's over-extraction of water had caused irreparable damage”
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How does Rio Tinto compare with other mining & extraction companies?
Where Rio Tinto sits among mining & extraction peers.
Among the 13 major mining & extraction brands we've scored, Rio Tinto is tied =8th of 13, with 1 other.
Who scores higher in Mining & Extraction?
The 3 companies in the sector scoring nearest above Rio Tinto.
Endeavour Mining reports operational emissions reductions but has not achieved absolute group-wide declines.
See the breakdown →Newmont has comprehensive emissions reporting and SBTi-validated 2030 targets, but absolute emissions rose 17% post-acquisition and remain on an upward trajectory.
See the breakdown →Fortescue reports detailed emissions data and has ambitious 2030/2040 decarbonisation targets backed by US$6.2B investment and major equipment orders.
See the breakdown →Which companies moved this week, and why.
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