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| Our environmental performance |
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Waste water being treated for reuse at our Sasolburg biological works. Efforts are ongoing to enhance our water-treatment technologies and reduce our raw
water consumption. |
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| Significant water savings achieved as part of
clean fuels expansion |
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| To meet new fuel specifications in South Africa, major process
modifications were required at our Synfuels plant at Secunda.
Initial estimates indicated that an additional 20 million litres of
water a day would be required as part of these process
modifications. We were thus faced with the challenge of
transforming our liquid effluent discharge to high specification
pure water. This required introduction of world-best available
technologies able to ensure a significant reduction in the removal
of contaminants. Through the successful implementation of
Project Landlord, requiring a capital investment of about
R500 million, we have managed to ensure the reuse of water that
would otherwise be discharged to a river. This has resulted in dual
positive environmental benefits: reduced water demand, and
reduced discharges to the environment. |
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| Managing land use and biodiversity |
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| At the end of the 2006 financial year, 3 901 hectares (ha) of land
were owned or leased by Sasol operations specifically for production
activities or extractive purposes. In addition, Sasol occupies 38 836 ha
of underground mining area and 1 284 ha of land for surface mining.
The total area of land dedicated for conservation and biodiversity
purposes at the end of the reporting period amounted to 3 096 ha.
While Sasol does not own any land in areas that have been formally
classified as environmentally sensitive or rich in biodiversity, we
nevertheless are involved in projects in areas of potential
environmental sensitivity, most notably, for example, as part of the
Mozambique Natural Gas Project. While procedures are in place with
the aim of minimising the impact of new projects on biodiversity, we
recognise this is an issue that may require a more structured
approach, particularly as we embark on new ventures in potentially
sensitive areas. |
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| Land use and biodiversity (thousand hectares) |
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Mining |
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Conservation |
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| Furthering product stewardship |
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Recognising the risk management and marketing benefits associated
with environmentally preferred products, particularly in the context
of the global policy shift towards addressing the risks and impacts of
products rather than processes alone, Sasol is committed to
adopting a cradle-to-grave approach to all the products we
develop, manufacture, use, distribute and sell.
Since 2003, a formalised global support structure − with assigned
responsibilities in each of the key individual companies − has been in
place with the goal of ensuring a structured response and providing
direction on product stewardship throughout the group.
We continue to coordinate the development of harmonised material
safety data sheets (MSDS) throughout the group, based on an
approved minimum data set that provides for recent legislative
developments in the EU and USA − such as the EU REACH legislation on the registration, evaluation and authorisation of chemicals − and
that addresses customer requests. Sasol operations in Europe and
the USA played a major role in developing the data set.
We have continued to play a leading role on product stewardship
issues in relevant European Chemical Industries' Council (CEFIC) and
American Chemistry Council (ACC) working groups. We are engaged
in several significant chemical-testing initiatives, including more
than 20 industry consortium efforts aimed at evaluating the hazards
of high-production-volume (HPV) chemicals. An animal testing
policy has been approved and is in use. We support the development
of the Global Harmonised System for Classification and will be
adopting this. Every Sasol chemical business is required to implement
the Responsible Care product stewardship code and achieve 90%
compliance, as measured by external verification, by July 2011. |
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| Managing environmental impacts in our new
global activities |
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Sasol is participating in new investments in countries such as
Mozambique, Nigeria, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Iran and
Qatar, where we are involved in exploration, extraction, processing
and transportation activities relating to natural gas, petroleum
and chemicals.
Our operations in these jurisdictions are subject to numerous
regulations for exploration and mining rights and the protection of
SH&E. In addition, securing external funding for projects of this
nature generally requires that we comply with World Bank social and
environmental requirements following the adoption by many major
commercial banks of the Equator Principles. With this in mind, we
typically require that such activities comply, as a minimum, with
World Bank environmental and social standards, as was the case with
the Mozambique Natural Gas Project.
With regard to new projects, our extensive research, development,
engineering, construction and operation process goes through a
detailed stage-gate business development and implementation
model. This has several sequential decision-gate criteria − including
SH&E considerations − aimed at ensuring that we comply, as a
minimum, with the regulations of the countries in which we operate.
In some of the new countries in which we are investing, detailed
technical and emission standards are not available. We are in the
process of developing and applying a minimum set of standard
requirements for facilities, equipment and emissions for those
regions where existing standards are not deemed sufficient. These
will take into account the World Bank guidelines, as well as our
commitments in terms of the UN Global Compact. |
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| Investing in improved environmental performance in our South African operations |
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We have dedicated significant resources (financial, technical and managerial) to ensure an improved environmental performance.
In additional to standard operational expenses − associated, for example, with emissions and effluent monitoring, taxes, levies and licence
fees − we have undertaken significant capital investments in numerous projects aimed at improving our environmental performance.
The following capital investments have been made on environmental issues at our Sasol Synfuels operation: |
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Clean fuels project: R6,5 billion will have been spent by the end of 2006; an additional R1 billion has been budgeted over the next five years. |
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Water and utilities-related upgrades: R621 million will have been spent by the end of 2006. |
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Waste-recycling facility: R520 million has been spent. |
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Black product site remediation: R150 million is to be spent over the next 10 years. |
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Energy-efficiency projects: R2,7 billion is to be spent over the next three to four years. |
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Sulphur recovery: R400 million has been spent over the last five years; an additional R800 million is to be spent over the next three years. |
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Water desalination plant: R500 million has been spent over the previous five years on a plant designed to treat and reuse effluent. |
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| Significant environmental expenditure has also been made by Sasol Oil: |
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Natref energy efficiency and emission reduction projects: R120 million spent over the last five years. |
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Natref clean fuels: R520 million spent by end 2005; an additional R3 billion has been budgeted for the next five years. |
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Natref sulphur recovery plant: R120 million budgeted for the next five years. |
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Additional Natref emission reduction projects: R150 million budgeted for the next five years. |
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| A provision of R1,6 billion has been made for remediation and asset retirement. |
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