Adriatic Metals Chief Sustainability Officer Alex Budden: 4 Things to Know

Adriatic Metals has hired Alex Budden (pictured above) for the newly created role of chief sustainability officer, reporting directly to the CEO Paul Cronin.

Here are four things to know about Budden's experience and expertise, and the Adriatic Metals sustainability strategy.

1. Business Scope and Scale: Adriatic Metals, based in London, United Kingdom, is a precious and base metals explorer and developer. The company owns the Vares silver project in Bosnia & Herzegovina, and the Raska zinc deposit in Serbia. For the fiscal year 2022, Adriatic Metals had 192 employees and 138 contractors involved in corporate operations, according to an annual report.

2. Sustainability Strategy and Milestones: The Adriatic Metals sustainability report from July 2023 is deeply detailed, but we're not sure when the company expect to achieve net-zero emissions.

3. Alex Budden's Focus and Experience: Budden's role at Adriatic Metals spans government relations, sustainability and ESG issues, including environmental services, community relations and energy, working closely with Risk & Assurance, Human Resources and Corporate Development, the company said.

Prior to joining Adriatic Metals, Budden was founder and director of his own consultancy (October 2022 through December 2023 or so). Earlier, he was executive VP of corporate affairs at Harbour Energy, VP of corporate affairs at Orrön Energy, a director of Lundin Foundation, and VP of external relations at Africa Oil.

According to his LinkedIn bio, Budden's expertise includes "helping organisations identify, integrate and deliver and communicate on key sustainability and ESG demands from investors, governments, staff and wider society in a way that maximises value for all."

4. Executive Perspectives: In a prepared statement about hiring Budden, Adriatic Metals CEO Paul Cronin said: "As Adriatic evolves to become a European focused mid-tier operator, our sustainability strategy, policies and activities will also need to strengthen and develop to ensure we enhance our social license to operate, protect the natural environment, and continue to lower our cost of capital. Sustainability has always been at the core of our business strategy."

Cronin concluded: "With the inclusion of Alex into our senior management team we will increase the importance of sustainability in our organisation, continue to operate with industry best practises, and build on our relationships with all our stakeholders."

 New Chief Sustainability Officer: Why Technology Partners Should Care

By 2027, 25% of Global 2000 companies will have assigned a chief sustainability officer (CSO) responsible for meeting their organization’s ESG goals and making ESG-related IT purchasing decisions, according to IDC.

The bottom line: Technology partners need to extend their sales, marketing, engagement and support strategies to successfully fulfill those CSO customer needs, Sustainable Tech Partner believes.