Shell Chemicals outlines sustainable development plans
Posted: 19 July 2003
Shell Chemicals has outlined the way it plans to deliver on its
commitment to sustainable development (SD), describing the specific
actions it is taking to change the way Shell chemicals companies
do business.
Two new documents, published 17 July, 2003: Delivering
on our commitment to sustainable development and Strategic
priorities for sustainable development describe why Shell
chemicals companies are committed to SD, what this commitment means
and what it is doing to implement these commitments.
Delivering on our commitment to sustainable development
summarises the ways in which SD is incorporated into Shell’s
business principles and operating model.
The booklet lists five new key performance goals Shell Chemicals
has set to drive continual improvement in SD performance over the
five year period to 2007.
The targets include improving overall energy efficiency by 7.5
per cent and reducing critical air emissions per unit of production
by an average of 25 per cent relative to 2002, and spills by 50
per cent relative to the previous five-year average.
Other targets are to compile risk assessments for all high production
volume chemicals, improve results in local community surveys for
all major manufacturing sites, and to increase the alignment of
business processes with SD by 40 per cent relative to 2002.
Delivering on our commitment to sustainable development
also includes a number of case studies demonstrating how SD is integrated
with the day-to-day activities of businesses and individual employees:
these range from the management of environmental and community issues
relating to building a new petrochemicals complex in China through
new process technology to a product that is recycling used beverage
bottles into a construction product for use in floors and walls.
In Strategic priorities for sustainable development,
Shell Chemicals describes the overall reach of each of the four
strategic priorities (see below) which define where SD can be most
effectively implemented and provides a list of steps required and
actions already taken to meet them.
“A key step in moving from high level commitment to specific
actions has been the definition of four Strategic Priorities to
drive sustainable development in Shell Chemicals,” says James
Smith, Executive Vice President -Technology, Portfolio and Sustainable
Development, Shell Chemicals Limited. “These priorities help
to define where SD can be most effectively implemented among Shell
chemicals companies and highlight the typical actions that need
to be taken.”
The four strategic priorities are:
- Reducing Shell’s footprint by cutting emissions, wastes
and resources.
- Sustaining value chains by improving the net contribution to
sustainable development of the value chains in which Shell is
involved.
- Building social capital through effective engagement with external
stakeholders, such as local communities, and supporting the needs
of employees.
- Creating Shell’s future through innovation and delivering
solutions that meet society’s evolving needs.
“What we already know is that the successful implementation
of SD will underpin our long-term business success. We will be in
a position to make better informed decisions about our future direction,
will become a more trusted business partner, and will be able to
play our part in making an essential industry better understood
and accepted,” says Smith.
Posted by Richard Price,
Editor Pipeline Magazine
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