2022 Sasol Sustainability Report - Book - Page 52
SUSTAINABILITY PERFORMANCE AGAINST OUR FOCUS AREAS
INTRODUCTION
DATA AND ASSURANCE
MANAGING OUR ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT
Environmental incident management
An environmental incident is internally deemed as an unwanted
event within Sasol’s operational control which has impacted on
the environment, specifically water, air, land and/or ecosystems.
Hence, it is important to note that most environmental incidents
are as a consequence of a process or product-related incident.
OUR APPROACH
Since 2015, we have followed a standardised approach to classifying, reporting and investigating
environmental incidents. This is reported monthly into the Sustainability Performance Management
Module (SuPM) according to a four-tier classification system; namely level 1 (major), level 2 (significant),
level 3 (moderate) or level 4 (minor).
Where applicable, incidents are reported to the relevant authorities in accordance with applicable
statutory and licensing requirements. Incidents are investigated in accordance with the SHE Incident
Management Procedure to identify the root cause which informs the necessary corrective and
preventative measures to be adopted to mitigate against their re-occurrence.
PERFORMANCE: TRENDS
A review was undertaken of the historical occurrence of Environment Incidents. The occurrence of major (level 1)
environmental incidents has been infrequent with only one reported in 2017. Significant (level 2) incidents are more
prevalent, averaging about eight in a financial year. On average 108 moderate (level 3) incidents are reported per year,
or about 20 for every one significant incident reported. The majority of incidents reported are classified as minor (level 1),
averaging 1 085 per year. Achieving consistency in classifying minor incidents has proved challenging and this dataset
needs to be interpreted with caution.
The number of significant environmental incidents reported for the period 2018 to 2021 consistently decreased year on
year. For 2022, however, the trend reversed with eight significant environmental incidents internally reported compared
to a total of five for 2021. A similar trend is observed for moderate incidents, namely a consistent decrease in moderate
incidents reported for the period 2018 to 2020, however, for 2021 and 2022 an increasing trend is observed.
3,0
25
2,5
21
2,77
18
9
8
2,0
1,5
5
7
9
1,0
0,5
Feb Mar Apr May
2020
Jun
Oct Nov Dec
Significant
Moderate
Jan
Feb Mar Apr May
0,0
• Given the current deteriorating performance, we undertook an analysis of the significant
and the more prevalent moderate incidents reported internally. This was to identify
recurring themes on which we can focus to prevent environmental incidents.
• The eight significant environmental incidents reported in 2022, all allocated to the Sasol
Energy Business, are related to failure of pipelines (two), loss of containment (release) of
contaminated water into a watercourse from a storage facility (five) and gaseous release
(one). The 323 moderate environmental incidents reported for the period 2020 – 2022
were grouped into themes to identify frequency of occurrence. A similar exercise was done
for the 59 significant incidents reported for the period 2017 – 2022.
Broad themes and frequency of occurrence of moderate incidents reported in 2022
and significant incidents reported 2017 – 2022
2020 – 2022
Theme
Loss of containment
Plant instability
Process equipment and machinery
Other
Jun
2022
2021
Major
2
1
Aug Sep
1
Jul
1
Jan
2
Oct Nov Dec
1
Aug Sep
1
1
Jul
1
0
1
1
3
5
4
6
5
7
8
7
9
10
11
12
11
15
13
16
17
2,0
14
17
18
20
RECURRING THEMES
EISR
EISR Target
SASOL SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2022
51
Moderate
Significant
62%
18%
10%
9%
94%
6%
0%
2%