Sasol Limited Sustainability Report 2021 - Book - Page 44
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SUSTAINABILITY PERFORMANCE AGAINST OUR FOCUS AREAS
PLANET
Minimising our environmental footprint
Our approach
Importance to Sasol
Sasol is dependent on natural resources
including coal, crude oil, natural gas and
water for our business activities. Our
activities, by their very nature, have an
unavoidable impact on the environment;
and we remain committed to minimising
these impacts. We recognise and
understand the environmental footprint
associated with our activities and
responsibly manage these in a prudent
and legally compliant way. Our actions
aim to ensure that SHE is a top priority.
Additionally, our SHE Policy commits us
to responsibly address our environmental
challenges with consideration for the
interests of our stakeholders.
What we are doing
Sasol continues to mitigate the risks related
to air quality, water consumption, waste
footprint, land use and the impact on
biodiversity through the ongoing investigation
of alternative feedstocks, optimised processes,
improved efficiency, and focused abatement
technology retrofits. This includes offsets,
monitoring air quality through an extensive
monitoring network as well as assessments
of the impacts on the environment.
Investments to reduce the environmental
footprint of our existing facilities will
benefit natural, human and social capital.
By converting natural capital into value-added
products, we boost the stocks of all the
other capitals.
An integrated risk-based approach is adopted for managing environmental challenges:
• We remain committed to compliance with all the applicable regulatory requirements
through, among others, diligent monitoring and reporting on our activities.
• We have adopted a risk-based approach to managing air quality that is aligned with
our safety and health approach and complexity of our operations and are diligently
keeping our focus on understanding and managing our processes that influence
ambient air quality in the areas in which we operate.
•Water is a critical feedstock required at a high level of availability assurance for
Sasol’s operations. Our water use globally is highly regulated through water use
authorisations which we adhere to.
•We continue to support the UN Global Compact CEO Water Mandate as a signatory.
•Our waste management approach centres on complying with applicable legislation
and adhering to waste management hierarchy principles.
•Sasol’s approach to land management and associated contamination are addressed
by managing the Group top risk of major SHE incidents.
Performance
AIR EMISSIONS
Sasol's water demand by region (as % of total)
United Kingdom
Russia
The
Netherlands
WATER
O
Canada
Ireland
Poland
Belgium
Austria
Germany
France
United States
Spain
Slovakia
Uzbekistan
Italy
The following environmental performance highlights for 2021
have been achieved amid challenging economic and prevailing
COVID-19 pandemic conditions.
• The installation of PM abatement equipment on our
boilers, consisting of the installation of seven high
frequency controllers in Secunda and the upgrade of seven
electrostatic precipitators at Sasolburg, has resulted in
an overall PM reduction of 14% (from 10,67 kt to 9,17 kt).
• Although production has increased year on year, nitrogen
oxides (NOx) emissions only experienced a marginal
increase from 135,84 kt in 2020 to 137,56 kt in 2021.
Due to sustained maintenance and operational
improvements, even under challenging economic
conditions, the NOx reduction of 8% achieved since
2019, was sustained.
• Sulphur oxides emissions decreased from 196,33 kt
in 2020 to 195,27 kt in 2021.
• The VOC emissions decreased from 38,30 kt in 2020
to 27,79 kt in 2021 due to the recommissioning of
five regenerative thermal oxidisers (RTOs) at our
Secunda Operations.
Since 2017, the following trends can be reported:
• Total water use has decreased from 142,6 million meters cubed (m³) in 2020 to 138,0 million m³ in 2021.
• River water use decreased from 115,5 million m³ in 2020 to 108,6 million m³ in 2021 mainly due to divestment
of assets in the United States and the joint venture partner being responsible for reporting on river water use.
• Potable water use has increased from 12,9 million m³ to 13,4 million m³ which is attributed mainly to an increase
in demand for potable water in Secunda for industrial purposes to offset a deterioration in river water quality.
• Other water use has increased slightly by 4% from 2020.
• Our global water demand decreased by 3% in 2021 due to divestment of the United States assets.
South African atmospheric emissions (kilotons - kt)
400
350
300
kilotons - kt
• Air quality management
• Water management
• Waste management
• Land and biodiversity
• Environmental compliance
TREND ANALYSIS
Taiwan
Singapore
Gabon
Zambia
Mozambique
• Hazardous waste generation decreased from 333 kt in 2020 to 319 kt in 2021. We generated 180 kt of non-hazardous
waste, down from 195 kt in 2020, as a result of reduction in activities due to COVID-19 restrictions.
South Africa
84,6%
8,8%
Eurasia
Operations
6,5%
160000
120000
80000
40000
0
18
19
20
River water
Water recycled
21
Desalinated water
Total liquid effluent
WASTE
Other
• Total recycled waste increased from 83 kt in 2020 to 125 kt in 2021 due to increase in third-party waste service
providers beneficiating waste streams.
800
(kilotons - kt)
• Sasol’s approach to waste management has undergone significant changes over the years in response to changing
legislation and industry practices.
Namibia
Southern
Africa
21
Total waste (kilotons - kt) - excluding ash
Brazil
North
America
Operations
20
Sulphur oxide (SOx)
Particulates
200000
Potable water
Other water
Nigeria
19
Total water usage (thousand meters cubed - m³)
Qatar
India
18
Nitrogen oxide (NOx)
VOC
Mexico
United Arab
Emirates
150
100
0
Japan
China
250
200
50
(thousand meters cubed - m³)
KPI
In this section:
600
400
200
0
0,1%
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18
19
Non-hazardous waste
Recycled waste
Sasol Sustainability Report 2021
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Hazardous waste