Sustainability at our core

Sustainability at ENOC is deeply ingrained in an unwavering commitment to conduct our business in a way that preserves the environment and protects the health and safety of all stakeholders. Our approach to these issues has been well established since the very start of our operations, and was further consolidated by the formulation of our Energy and Resource Management policy almost a decade ago.

ENOC continuously seeks to develop as a dynamic, innovative, and environmentally responsible player in the marketplace. To do so, we have developed strategic objectives that allow us to maintain business growth, contribute to the UAE’s economy, and look after our people and the environment we live in.

The latest phase in ENOC’s sustainability transition began in 2016 when we identified the need to formally present our sustainability performance to our internal and external stakeholders, in addition to the grassroots work undertaken in previous years around energy and resource management, CSR initiatives, and managing the health and safety of our people.

A Group Sustainability Office has given body to this initiative, acting both as an ENOC sustainability arm, and as the conduit for actively engaging stakeholders and raising awareness of the importance of sustainability across the organisation.

But why did we need to engage stakeholders in the process? Firstly, we needed to identify who they were and to review the extent to which they understood sustainability, and the issues related to it.

Secondly, in addition to reaching out to our own management and staff, it was also important to reach out to external stakeholders, to seek their input in framing the most appropriate and workable sustainability strategy. Only when armed with these internal and external insights could we begin to adopt an approach to sustainability that both addressed knowledge gaps and raised awareness. We believe it is an approach that has undoubtedly contributed to a common understanding of the function, while providing a platform for identifying ENOC’s sustainability priorities.

We believe that direct engagement with all our stakeholders in this way will, in future years, help us achieve our strategic objectives: namely, becoming an innovative energy partner delivering sustainable value and industry-leading performance.

ENOC’s annual Sustainability Performance Report, launched in late 2017, is a first for the Group and the first sustainability performance index for the Middle East’s oil and gas sector.

The report captures our performance over the three central pillars of sustainability – economic, social, and environmental – against internationally recognised guidelines based on 19 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These KPIs emerged from a series of workshops with key internal and external stakeholders before their conversion to an ENOC Sustainability Performance Index, which is informed by the methodology of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.

It further references our sustainability initiatives in line with the UAE Vision 2021; the Dubai Plan 2021; the Dubai Integrated Energy Strategy 2030; and the Dubai Carbon Abatement Strategy 2021, as we expand our operations to meet domestic energy demand sustainably over the next five years.

Golden Peacock Award

In recognition of our Group’s efforts to achieve excellence in sustainability performance and promoting sustainable development in the region, we received the 2017 Golden Peacock Global Award for Sustainability – a worldwide corporate excellence benchmark.

The Golden Peacock Awards were established to encourage organisations to drive sustainability schemes within their operations. ENOC is the first energy player in the Middle East to receive the award, endorsing its wide range of sustainability initiatives, positive impact on stakeholders, and enhancing the happiness of employees.

Sustainability governance

Recognising the importance of strong sustainability leadership, ENOC first developed a Sustainability Governance Structure, which led to the establishment of the Group Sustainability Office. This was followed by development of the Group’s first Sustainability Charter. The process included the creation of a dedicated team capable of providing professional services and technical expertise in the field of sustainability. ENOC’s Sustainability Group includes nine main committees at Group level, each playing a specific role in fulfilling the Group’s strategic goals and aligning its policies and strategies with Dubai Government’s strategies and directives for sustainable growth. These committees are:

ENOC Sustainability Leadership Committee

ENOC Sustainability Reporting Taskforce

ENOC Carbon Abatement/Climate Change Taskforce

ENOC Environment Technical Committee

ENOC Energy and Resource Management Steering Committee

ENOC Energy and Resource Management Technical Committee

ENOC Fuel Efficiency Technical Taskforce

ENOC Corporate Social Responsibility Steering Committee

ENOC Corporate Social Responsibility Technical Committee

Measuring performance

To measure sustainability performance within ENOC, we developed key performance indicators (KPIs) against a set of environmental, social and economic criteria. We included these in the scorecard of segments, business units, and individual departments. The topics covered have been aligned with the requirements of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) – the independent international organisation that has pioneered sustainability reporting since 1997.

The 19 KPI outcomes, and data associated with each topic, are incorporated into ENOC’s Sustainability Index. With the launch of ENOC’s Sustainability Performance Report, ENOC became the first organisation in the Middle East to incorporate a Sustainability Index in its performance scorecard.

Each year, material topics are reviewed to ensure they are up to date and reflect the sustainability issues of the time. The detailed KPI-driven outcomes will also enable us to manage and plan our sustainability activities in subsequent years. Our strategic roadmap to achieve this is outlined below.

Group Sustainability Office Strategic Map

The tangible benefits arising from commitment to sustainability are evident in the return on investment, cumulatively amounting to US $10.8 million since 2014:

3 times increase in 2017 savings achieved compared to 2016

Invested about US $6.8 million with payback of 2.5 years

Equivalent to 29,660 tons of CO₂ emissions saved, or

1.3 million litres of gasoline

770,000 trees grown for 10 years

117 million km driven in car

The reduction in greenhouse gas emissions amounted to:

12 percent drop in GHG emission intensity since 2014

4 percent reduction in 2017 from 2016

Since 2014, GHG emission intensity reduction has saved 150,000 tons of CO₂ emissions, equal to:

– 64 million litres of gasoline saved

– 3.9 million trees grown for 10 years

– 592 million km driven in a car 15,000 times around the Earth

Greening our procurement

At ENOC, sustainable procurement is not simply about being ‘green’: it is also about:

Purchasing that is socially and ethically responsible

Minimising environmental impact through the supply chain and in its lifecycle

Delivering economically sound solutions

Maintaining good business practice

Sustainable procurement helps the Group save costs and resources by reducing or eliminating waste. It also ensures that the Group is continually assessing and reassessing the need to buy, thereby reducing quantities, saving energy and water, promoting reuse and recycling, minimising packaging and optimising transport. These reduce risks across the supply chain, help to cut greenhouse gas emissions, minimise illegal and unsustainable use of natural resources, and help to reduce pollution.

The ‘Supplier Code of Conduct’ developed by ENOC Business Ethics and Compliance is an integral part of supplier relationship management. This aims to provide clear insights, and a deeper understanding of the values, responsibilities, obligations and ethical standards at ENOC, for its vendors.

It highlights the Group’s approach towards fair treatment, the environment, health and safety standards, workplace conduct, conflicts of interest etc. to ensure that the Group nurtures effective and rewarding collaborations.

The Group aims to be a role model for green procurement through both committee involvement and business practices that leverage supplier innovation, community involvement, customer wellbeing, and happiness for all stakeholders. We have developed a guidebook detailing the minimum standards for the purchase of energy- efficient electric motors. This standard will be widely adopted in Dubai, by all Government entities, under the Green Public Procurement for Energy and Water Efficiency (GPPEWE) committee, spearheaded by the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy.

We also adopted the Purchase And Design Energy Efficiency Standard in 2017. This sets the minimum energy efficiency guidelines for purchasing energy-consuming equipment within ENOC, and applies to all business units planning revamps and retrofits of existing facilities or new projects.

As green procurement becomes further embedded in the Group’s business strategy and ENOC’s Sustainability Index, it will address broader sustainability issues beyond energy and water efficiency.

The social aspects include better contracting conditions for workers, supporting the development of small and medium enterprises and local community engagement. The concept of green procurement is gaining momentum across the Group, particularly given its contribution to achieving sustainability goals. In 2017, 56 percent of ENOC’s procurement qualified as green, and more than 80 percent of total suppliers were local.

Sustaining our environment

Managing the impact of our operations on the environment is very important to us. Through our policies and performance goal-setting, we have been able to manage our energy consumption, the emissions that we generate, the water that we use, and the waste that we produce.

Our operations have the potential to affect the land, water and air, so we have installed a number of measures to try and eliminate or minimise that potential. Ultimately, we seek to reduce our air emissions and generation of greenhouse gases by reducing the amount of energy and water we use in our processes and the amount that is wasted. Furthermore, we want to reduce the amount of solid waste that we generate and manage the waste generated responsibly.

Reducing our energy and emissions

The diversified nature of our business involves the consumption of energy resources and the generation of pollution up to acceptable levels. However, as a responsible corporate organisation we always strive to control and manage this, so as not to generate excessive emissions and overuse energy resources.

Understanding our energy demand and emissions generation was the first step in taking action to improve. Through our Group Sustainability Reporting Taskforce we have identified Sustainability Champions from different business units within the ENOC Group, who are best placed to understand the data and make informed improvements. For a number of years we have collected data on our energy consumption across the business, and this can be summarised in the table below.

Our energy intensity has decreased over the last four years with an almost 14 percent reduction in the gigajoules of energy consumed per ton of production. Our biggest consumer of energy is the STP segment that includes the refinery and DUGAS. This is to be expected due to the energy-intensive nature of processing to refine the products. We have taken several energy and resource management measures, which has resulted in a reduction in the overall specific energy consumption. These measures include waste heat recovery in our refinery operations, greening of buildings, and integrating renewable energy wherever possible.

Consuming water efficiently

Water is a scarce and precious resource for us in the UAE, and this has instilled an approach to the management of water within ENOC that encourages efficient water use in our operations, seeking to reduce the losses or waste that we generate. We constantly pursue initiatives to save water or recover the water we do use.

One such initiative is the way our retail sector reduces water consumption. New service stations can recycle carwash water, and customers can choose a waterless system where use of an all-in-one eco-friendly liquid saves water and prevents detergents from polluting the environment: the ‘No-Wet’ system cleaning liquid is made from all natural ingredients and does not contain petroleum distillates, silicone, abrasives, harmful chemicals or detergents.

The Group’s water use for 2017 amounted to about 2.3 million m³, with refinery, retail and DUGAS accounting for 47 percent, 28 percent and 16 percent respectively. Our other business segments accounted for the remaining 9 percent.

Way forward to improve our environment performance

ENOC is investing significant effort in terms of time and money to take the next step in our sustainability journey. One area where this will have a direct impact on improving our environmental performance is in the transition to measuring ENOC’s Sustainability Index with its KPIs and targets for our business segments.

For example, over the past nine years ENOC has set a quantifiable target for energy and resource management. In 2017, this metric matured as ENOC’s Sustainability Index, taking our different business segments into consideration.

The index now exists as a variable set of targets depending on operations (energy intensity, emission intensity, water, waste, green procurement, flaring etc.). We have an ambitious target in E&RM to reduce our energy consumption by 12 percent in 2021 from the 2013 baseline.