Our Products, Helping Improve Lives
The materials we produce are fundamental to our modern, sustainable societies and help improve the quality of life for people around the world.
From keeping us connected and protected to getting us where we need to go, each day we rely on our products in more ways than you might imagine…
…to combat climate change
Solar Panels
Use of solar power continues to grow and is projected to nearly double in the next four years. Each solar panel requires 19 different mineral products and metals, including copper, indium, silver, steel and zinc.
…to build clean energy technologies
Electric Cars
The next generation of electric cars—including Teslas—requires four times as much copper as the muscle cars of the past. A single car can require nearly six kilometres of copper wiring, and demand for electric cars is set to rise ninefold by 2027. As for the newest Tesla Model 3, the body components are made mostly of steel, replacing the aluminum used in previous models.
…to create safe infrastructure
Buildings
Natural disasters, such as earthquakes, pose a danger to buildings and their occupants. Zinc-coated steel allows design flexibility, strength and durability. Today, controlled rocking systems with reinforced steel frames are being used to provide elasticity and allow buildings to move with shaking during an earthquake. Replaceable steel fuses are also used to absorb seismic energy as the building rocks.
…to stay connected
The Cloud
Our photos, music, e-mails and tweets aren’t just in the air, they are firmly grounded in the products of the earth. We can’t see it, but “the cloud”—one form of Internet-based resource and data-sharing systems—is really made of metal, running on data servers that need miles of copper for wiring and power transmissions.
…to keep products moving
Railways
Rail, which requires steelmaking coal, is the most environmentally responsible way to transport products—up to four times more efficient than trucks. A single train replaces up to 250 trucks, saving 35,000 litres of fuel and 100 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
…to protect us and address global health challenges
Copper + Health
In health-care facilities, harmful bacteria and viruses exist on commonly touched surfaces such as door handles, push buttons and equipment, putting patients, health-care workers and visitors at risk. Every year, more than 200,000 patients contract an infection while receiving care, costing the Canadian health-care system more than $1 billion annually.
Copper, with its unique antimicrobial properties, can kill 99.9% of surface bacteria when used on high-touch surfaces.
As a major copper producer, Teck is partnering with health-care providers, exploring opportunities to use copper in hospitals and clinics to help fight against the spread of health care-acquired infections and save lives.
In 2013, Teck contributed $2.5 million towards Vancouver General Hospital’s (VGH) Intensive Care Unit redevelopment. As part of this project, VGH will be the first health-care facility in Canada to outfit horizontal surfaces—nursing station desks and counters inside patients’ room—with a copper oxide-infused surface material to reduce bacteria.
Zinc & Health
Each day, diarrhea related to zinc deficiency kills more than 1,400 children under the age of five—mainly in developing countries in Asia and Africa.
Therapeutic zinc is a simple and inexpensive treatment to help save lives. Combined with oral rehydration salts, zinc can reduce the duration and severity of diarrheal episodes and may also prevent future episodes for up to three months.
Teck is a founding member of the Zinc Alliance for Child Health (ZACH), a public-private-civil society alliance created to develop and sustain zinc treatment programs that helps save children’s lives. Through partnerships under ZACH, Teck has helped to improve the use of and access to therapeutic zinc and oral rehydration salts for diarrhea treatment in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, India, Kenya
and Senegal.
To date, children in these countries have received more than 44 million life-saving treatments of zinc and oral rehydration salts as a result of ZACH, and more than 60,000 community health workers have been trained to strengthen health-care systems.
For more on Teck’s global citizenship activities and initiatives, including our work helping achieve progress on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), visit www.teck.com/responsibility
