The Coalition for Responsible Sand and Silicates

The challenge

Sand and silicates are the most extracted solid materials on Earth, essential to everything from housing and roads to electronics and solar panels. These materials—including aggregates, clays, industrial sands, natural stones, and high-purity quartz— are foundational, yet often treated as low-risk and remain largely invisible to us. Despite their central role in the global economy, they remain largely absent from the responsible sourcing frameworks that govern other mineral flows. 

The evidence base is clear: this invisibility comes at a cost. 

Sand and silicate supply chains are implicated in a range of human rights, environmental, and systemic risks, many of which are already recognised in international due diligence frameworks, including: 

• OECD Annex II risks such as forced labour, tax evasion, bribery, and mislabelling of origin 
• OECD Environmental Handbook risks such as erosion, biodiversity loss, pollution, and water stress 
• Systemic impacts including displacement, Indigenous rights violations, and unsafe working conditions 

As volume, dependence, and scrutiny increase, so too does the urgency to act to develop clear guidance, best practices and coordinated approaches to upgrading our approach to supply chain innovation for these materials. 

Responsible business conduct in sand and silicate supply chains is no longer optional—it is overdue. 

The Coalition for Responsible Sand and Silicates solves this challenge by bringing together actors with an interest in responsible sand and silicates to collaboratively catalyse change in how we produce and source these important materials. 

We aim to catalyse a fundamental shift in how sand and silicates are produced and consumed.

Our response

Our North Star: Building a future where sand and silicate resources are sourced, used, and managed responsibly. 

At The University of Queensland’s Global Centre for Mineral Security, we begin with a simple principle: minerals aren’t just economic inputs—they’re foundational to meeting basic human needs like shelter, water, food, and energy.  

Our Transformation Goal 

We aim to catalyse a fundamental shift in how sand and silicates are produced, traded, and consumed—laying the groundwork for a just transition in how we manage the world’s most extracted solid materials. 

This transformation is being pursued through a next-generation voluntary sustainability initiative: the Coalition for Responsible Sand and Silicates, which UQ is co-developing with stakeholders as a strategic response to a deeply fragmented governance landscape. 

Why a coalition?  

Responsible Sand and Silicates is a grand challenge: vast in scale, complex in impact, and deeply embedded in social, economic, and ecological systems—yet still largely ungoverned and misaligned with market norms.  

Following extensive dialogue with industry actors, civil society, and international organisations from 2022 to now, UQ sees the need for a new kind of platform: one that can consolidate fragmented efforts, align incentives, and support practical action across diverse supply chains.