Following the collapse, 186 people were confirmed dead and 122 are still missing. Official data from the Brazilian Environmental Agency says that the flow of sludge destroyed 270 hectares, of which more than half was native vegetation or protected forest. The swathes of natural habitat destroyed are equivalent to 300 football fields. Tragically, this happened only three years after a similar accident on another of Vale’s dams in the southern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, near the city of Mariana, which killed 19 people.

By any measure of business sustainability, the Brumadinho disaster came as a heavy blow to Vale’s performance and reputation. Since then, the company has had its credit rating downgraded, not to mention suffering perhaps irreparable damage to its public image.

Vale appointed Fabio Schvartsman as its CEO after the Mariana disaster in November 2015. Mr. Schvartsman took the job and announced his strong slogan to shareholders, employees and the Brazilian people: “Mariana, Never Again.” He failed miserably.

Considering Vale’s recent history and the magnitude of these disasters, the corporate response to the Brumadinho tragedy is ludicrous. In a parliamentary session which assessed the condition of other mining dams in Brazil after the collapse at Brumadinho, Mr. Schvartsman told Congress that “Vale is a Brazilian jewel that cannot be condemned for an accident that took place in one of its dams, as it was considered a tragedy.”

Despite his confidence, questions remain unanswered. Why didn’t the company move its cafeteria, which was located downstream from the dam in a high-risk area, according to the assessment of reports dated October 3, 2018?

The precautionary principle states that if an operation has a risk that might cause severe or irreversible harm to the public or to the environment, that operation must be stopped—even if the likelihood of it happening is low. So why wasn’t this applied?

Moving forward

Since standards clearly did not improve over the last three years, how can Brazilians now trust the safety of other dams? During the incident, why did the sirens allegedly fail to work when the dam collapsed, to alert employees and the local community to evacuate?

Vale must account for its operational failure with the same gravity as is the standard in developed countries. The Canadian mining company Imperial Metals is still suffering from the environmental liabilities of the Mount Polley mine disaster in 2014.

There is a precedent for CEOs and executives to be forced to resign after serious errors, such as the former chief executive of BP, Tony Hayward, who resigned after the Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 people in 2010. Schvartsman’s temporary resignation sends an unclear message about the company’s commitments to the lives of its employees and the communities it operates in.

Vale’s next CEO will need to go beyond Schvartsman’s rhetoric and consider which stricter operating procedures might be necessary. Otherwise, it could only be a matter of time before the next “accident.” There are more than 50 similar dams still functioning under Vale’s operations in the state of Minas Gerais alone, each could be another tragedy waiting to happen.

Vale cannot operate at the expense of lives and environmental destruction. Brumadinho can still be a turning point in the company’s history, giving it an opportunity to show it is able to learn to better avoid accidents and tragedies. It could still transform itself into a more responsible company. For that, however, it will need to urgently embrace change as never before.