Positive Social Impact

Through the dedication of Covia Team Members across our global operations, we have built a determined organization that is guided by our values and united under our shared belief in the power of long-term partnerships. Every day, we strive to foster a culture of performance and accountability – one in which we all understand the important role we play in ensuring a bright and sustainable future for our company, our customers, and the communities we serve.

Ensure the Safety and Health of Team Members

Our ongoing commitment to excellent safety performance and continuous improvement is reflected in our safety and health targets. Our efforts and commitments align with UN SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being.

Target: Achieve year-over-year improvement in all incidence rate for Team Members in support of our Safety First value and priorities. The ultimate goal, of course, is zero injuries.

2023 Progress: We drove meaningful progress in our year-over-year performance through several strategic initiatives and investments to reinforce our culture of shared responsibility and accountability at all levels of the organization. We continued to prioritize companywide awareness through refreshed and innovative training. Additionally, we strengthened our Safety and Health teams by investing in hiring and developing talented people at various levels and locations, ensuring each site has appropriate and effective resources to reinforce our safety programs. As a result of these efforts, our all incidence rate decreased to 0.95 in 2023, representing an annual improvement each year since 2021 (our baseline year).

Target: Achieve year-over-year reduction in the number of job positions potentially overexposed to respirable silica, through the Hierarchy of Controls, which can be found on page 35 of this report.

2023 Progress: We continued to invest in measures and capital projects focused on improving dust control at our mining and processing sites. As a result, we reduced the number of job positions potentially overexposed to respirable silica to nine by the end of the year, a reduction of 36% since 2022. We define potentially overexposed as having greater than 25% probability of exceeding our internal respirable silica exposure limit, which is more stringent than regulatory requirements. This represents an improvement each year since 2021 (our baseline year).

Foster an Inclusive Culture Where Everyone Feels Valued and Engaged

In 2023, we continued our ongoing commitment to enhance inclusion, diversity, and Team Member engagement throughout our organization, supporting UN SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities.

Target: Drive continuous annual improvement in underrepresented talent across our workforce to reflect the local communities in which we operate.

2023 Progress: Visit page 38 of Covia's 2023 Sustainability Report to learn more about how we are driving continuous annual improvement in underrepresented talent across our workforce.

Target: Increase the collective gender, racial, and ethnic diversity of our Board Members and Leadership Team to 40%, while continuing to cultivate extensive industry and subject matter diversity.

2023 Progress: Visit page 38 of Covia's 2023 Sustainability Report to learn more about how we are increasing the collective gender, racial, and ethnic diversity of our Board Members and Leadership Team.

Target: Enhance organizational programming to support a culture of inclusion and foster a greater sense of belonging.

2023 Progress: Two major achievements helped support our culture of inclusion and belonging. The first involved launching our intranet platform, the Quarry, serving as a central hub to foster connectivity and collaboration for all Team Members. The second milestone was the creation of our Veterans Network Employee Resource Group (ERG), designed to recognize military service, engage in military and veteran community activities, develop relationships with key veterans’ groups to enhance our recruitment efforts, and offer support to Team Members balancing military service with their civilian jobs, from training to deployment to rejoining civilian life.

Target: Improve Team Member engagement ratings by routinely assessing the effectiveness of our programs and practices.

2023 Progress: In 2022, we committed to conducting biennial engagement surveys, with our second survey issued in March 2024. We are dedicated to measuring the satisfaction, opinions, and concerns of our Team Members, now incorporating our Denmark colleagues, while gaining crucial insights for organizational improvement. We look forward to providing an update on this metric in our next Corporate Responsibility Report.

Support Our Communities

Our community investment targets, which align with UN SDGs 3: Good Health and Well-Being; 4: Quality Education; 10: Reduced Inequalities; and 15: Life on Land, continue to encourage contributions and active volunteerism across the organization, helping to build a bright future for all.

Target: Donate $10 million in funds through The Covia Foundation, which focuses on improving education, the environment, health and wellness, and social equality by supporting initiatives in the communities in which we operate.

2023 Progress: We donated more than $1 million through The Covia Foundation. In total, our donations since 2021 (our baseline year) represent 33% of our goal of $10 million in contributions by 2030.

Target: Contribute 50,000 paid or personal volunteer hours in communities where we live and work.

2023 Progress: Our Team Members collectively volunteered 12,760 hours, a year-over-year increase of more than 2,000 hours. In total, Team Member volunteer hours since 2021 (our baseline year) represent 58% of our goal of 50,000 hours by 2030.

Expand Sustainable Product Offerings

We remain committed to further ingraining sustainability into our business model and services, and our targets align with UN SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production.

Target: Expand the number and reach of our products that have environmental and social benefits.

2023 Progress: We are committed to innovation and exploring alternative solutions with our customers through increased investment in our research and development facilities. Covia’s new Innovation Center in Concord, North Carolina, is expected to be opened within the next year. This new addition increases our capabilities to explore, design, and test new products.

Through partnership with our customers, we have identified three additional products, MINBLOC® HC, CRISTOBALEX™, and SPECTRUM®, that have either environmental or societal benefits, bringing our total number of products in this category to 14. These products (along with others) are highlighted throughout this section.

Learn More About Covia's Sustainable Products

Highlights That Inspire

Covia Tests Innovative Safety Technologies

Fatigue can be a complex issue to address in our industry, which is why we’ve partnered with the leading provider of fatigue intelligence and analytics to leverage cutting-edge technology that allows us to predict the effects of sleep disruption on the reaction time and cognitive effectiveness of our Team Members. By implementing this technology, we are:

Proactively identifying high-risk moments during a shift and
throughout the week for each individual Team Member
Using this information strategically to plan and prioritize lower-risk tasks during these critical moments, ensuring a safer and more efficient work environment

Read the full story on page 32.

Recognizing Our 2023 Awards Winners

Each year, we look forward to recognizing the outstanding accomplishments of our Team Members and plants. During our annual Covia Excellence Awards Week, we celebrated our top performers who exemplified our Covia Values in 2023, presenting them with distinct honors in the categories listed below.

Plant of the Year
President’s Safety Award
Leaf Award for Environmental Excellence
Operations Impact Award
Commercial Impact Award
Support Impact Award
Volunteer of the Year
Diversity & Inclusion Prism Award

Read more about the 2023 winners on page 40.

Working Together to Address Hunger in Our Communities

Across the globe, Covia Team Members volunteered their time and resources in 2023 to help combat food insecurity in their communities. Here are a few examples of our Teams in action:

In The Woodlands, Texas, Team Members decorated lunch bags and packed pre-packaged items for homebound seniors living in Montgomery County, Texas.
Our Monterrey, Mexico, plant volunteered 39 hours at a local food bank, donating milk and water that benefited over 800 local residents.
Team Members in Camden, Tennessee, spent a total of 43 hours over two days sorting food for deliveries, packing food donations, and preparing backpacks for children experiencing hunger.
During the Thanksgiving season, our Elco/Tamms, Illinois, plant supported the Trinity Assembly of God Church Food Bank, while our Tuscaloosa, Alabama, plant supported the West Alabama Food Bank to provide food for those who need it most.
During the Christmas season, the McIntyre, Georgia, plant supported the local food bank by holding a food drive at the facility. All Team Members participated and collected food for those in need.