Shell's Sustainability DNA

Shell's sustainability DNA

Shell's sustainability DNA, Shell is a traditional energy company, due to global climate change, environmental issues have become the focus of public attention, shaping a good corporate image is very important for traditional energy companies. Let's take a look at Shell's sustainability DNA.

Shell's sustainability DNA1

For a traditional energy company like Shell, the greatest significance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is to create a favorable external environment for the company's development.

One of Shell's key operational strategies in China is to nurture local people to contribute to the company's development. This philosophy, which was originally aimed at internal staff, has now been extended to Shell's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices as Shell continues to grow in China, and Shell promotes the concept of sustainable development through long-term investment in education.

Spreading the idea

"As an employee of an energy company, I think we need to learn about all kinds of energy, and we also need to learn about the society and our neighbors by going into the countryside, and do our part to take on CSR."

This quote comes from a practical experience written by Fan Meiqing, a Shell employee, after participating in the Shell Student Energy and New Rural Communities Social Research Project (Shell Student Rural Energy Research).

Since its launch in 2004, the Shell Rural Energy Research Program has been held for seven consecutive years. Currently, Shell China recruits 20 teams from universities in Beijing and Shanghai every year and sponsors them to go to rural areas to study the use of energy there.

At the same time, Shell China also recruits volunteers from within the company to join the research teams as ordinary team members and complete the research work together with the university students.

The theme of the 2010 campaign focused on the biogas socialization system in rural China. In just nine days, Fan Meiqing and five students from Xi'an Jiaotong University traveled to 13 villages in Zu'an Township, Hu County, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, visited 12 biogas service stations, and visited more than 200 households.

In the end, their research report, "Research Report on the Construction of Village Biogas Service Stations in Zu'an Town, Hu County, Shaanxi Province" won the second place in the 2010 Shell Rural Energy Research Program.

"Nowadays, many university students don't know much about the actual situation in China, and our original intention is to let students go to the grassroots and use their own eyes to understand what society is really like."

Bi Lei, Social Performance Manager of Shell China's Public **** Affairs Department, said, "We hope to indirectly contribute to the improvement of the countryside through the students' reports, but our ultimate landing point is still on the students, or on the point of 'tree people'."

In Shell China's CSR practice, education program is the most core content, because in Shell's view, only through education can we really help citizens to establish the concept of environmental protection, and realize the sustainable development of this society.

In addition to the "Shell Rural Energy Research for University Students" project, Shell has also carried out many other projects. For example, the Shell Eco-marathon, which also targets university students, and the Beauty Campaign, which targets young people. Shell China has even developed a set of teaching materials to promote environmental protection in primary and secondary schools in China.

The "Operation Greenland" was launched in 1996 to encourage primary and secondary school students to design and implement environmentally friendly projects within their reach. Over the past decade, the program has expanded from Guangzhou to more than a dozen cities across China, including Beijing and Shanghai, and the number of participants has exceeded one million.

"On the 10th anniversary of 'Operation BEAUTYLAND', many of the children who participated in the first event had gone on to work, and when they came back,

they had become very committed to environmental protection, and some of them even used the environmental bags we gave him back then. " Liu Xiaowei, Director of Shell China's Public Affairs Department, recalled the development of Operation BEAUTIFUL over the years.

Capabilities on the ground

Shell has its own understanding of CSR. "Within Shell, we don't generally call it CSR, we call it sustainable development, and we think the concept of sustainable development has a bit broader connotation than CSR."

Bi Lei explained. Society is a crucial part of Shell's sustainability philosophy, and Shell refers to corporate contributions to society as social investment.

"In China, we divide social investment into two major parts based on our specialties, the characteristics of our industry, and the hot issues in China: one part is education; and the other part is capacity building." Liu Xiaowei said.

If Shell's focus on education is indirectly contributing to social and environmental sustainability, the role played by capacity building is direct.

The New Economy China program is at the heart of Shell's capacity building, targeting investment promotion and capacity building for green SMEs in China to help them gain access to finance in the area of sustainable development.

Beijing Blue Clean Technology Development Co., Ltd (Blue Clean) is one of the enterprises developed under the support of the New Economy China program.

BlueClean is engaged in the development of eco-friendly toilet technology and product promotion, and has developed into a leading company in the domestic eco-friendly toilet industry, with its main product, the water-free flushable toilet, being widely used in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the 60th anniversary of National Day in 2009.

Since 2003, more than 400 green SMEs have participated in the New Economy China program's capacity building and financing matching activities. 60 enterprises have received focused cultivation, and 15 enterprises have received different forms of financing totaling more than RMB 1 billion.

"It has changed quite a lot in the past two years. Previously, venture capital was not interested in these enterprises, but from the previous year, the project annual meeting came a lot of venture capitalists, and some of them got involved in the line." Bi Lei said proudly.

Shell's capacity building is not limited to this; after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, Shell partnered with the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA) to launch a micro-credit business in the heavily affected areas of Shifang, Deyang and Mianzhu in Sichuan province, providing financial assistance to local people to rebuild and resume production after the disaster.

From focusing on education to promoting the development of green SMEs and micro-credit in the affected areas, Shell China has established a healthy corporate image. Shell China has established a healthy and positive corporate image.

Good image for business transformation

In recent years, environmental issues have become a major public concern as global climate change takes hold. In this context, building a good corporate image is very important for traditional energy companies.

In Bi Lei's view, the purpose of Shell's social investment is not to be able to bring direct benefits to the company, but to help Shell become a good corporate citizen and win some good reputation for Shell. "It's good for the long-term development of the company if you get on well with the community and the environment around you." Bire said.

It cannot be denied that traditional energy will still play an irreplaceable role in human life for quite some time to come.

According to Liu Xiaowei, even by 2050, renewable resources accounted for the proportion of primary energy can only reach 30%, 70% of human energy needs still rely on traditional energy to meet. The idea of stopping the use of traditional fossil energy at this stage is not realistic and lacks operability.

Shell's promotion of sustainable development in its CSR practices has created a favorable external environment for the transformation of Shell's own business; and the external environment has in turn contributed to the transformation of the company.

In fact, Shell is always looking for a balance between corporate development and environmental protection, and in Liu Xiaowei's words, "people need all the energy solutions".

Shell's short-term goal is to utilize traditional fossil fuels in a cleaner way. Specifically, Shell is investing more in its natural gas business, which is the cleanest of the traditional fossil energy sources.

"Using natural gas to generate electricity is 50% cleaner and more efficient than using coal, and is in line with China's current energy saving and emission reduction targets." Liu Xiaowei explained that by 2012, natural gas will overtake oil for the major share of fossil energy produced by Shell.

"Taken together, from the production of energy to its final consumption, at every point in the process, each of us is responsible. From the perspective of energy companies, we look for cleaner energy or more efficient use of energy through better technology and more mature business models.

"In Liu Xiaowei's view, on the road to energy saving and emission reduction, traditional energy companies have an unshirkable responsibility, but relying on the energy companies themselves is not enough, and need the power of the whole society **** with efforts.

In February 2010, Shell signed a cooperation agreement with Cosan, the world's largest sugar and ethanol producer, to integrate its resources and ****together form a $12 billion ethanol and fuel joint venture. This is a major step forward for Shell in the clean energy sector.

As a responsible traditional energy company, what kind of social responsibility should Shell have? "On the one hand, we will try to minimize the impact on the environment and society during the operation process; on the other hand, we want to share our insights on energy with more people through social investment." Liu Xiaowei said firmly.

Shell's sustainability DNA2

What sustainability means to Shell

For Shell, sustainability means providing essential energy to a growing population, while respecting people, their safety and the environment in which they live.

Sustainability at Shell touches every aspect of our business operations. We are committed to providing the energy needed to feed a growing population in a responsible way, while respecting people, their safety and the environment. Sustainability is integral to the continued operation of our business and our role as a member of society.

Our approach to sustainability is integrated into all of our business activities at three levels:

1. Running a Safe, Efficient, Responsible, and Profitable Business

This is the foundation of our approach, which involves the development of global standards, processes, and tools for the management of safety, environment and community engagement.

We are committed to continually improving the way we do business, preventing accidents and identifying, avoiding where possible and minimizing where possible, the adverse environmental and social impacts of our projects and facilities. We report on our achievements in our annual sustainability report.

2. Share in the wider benefits of the regions in which we operate

We have a long-term business plan to be part of the communities in which we operate for decades to come, and we help to develop the local economy by creating employment opportunities, purchasing from local suppliers, and paying taxes and related fees. We provide strong support for community projects based on the needs of the local community.

3. Helping to shape a more sustainable energy future

In the face of increasing environmental pressures, more and cleaner energy is likely to be needed for economic growth in the coming decades. We are investing heavily in low-carbon energy solutions and advanced technologies, such as those that improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions.

We continue to make our fair share of contributions to the public*** dialogue on energy and climate policy. However, the scale of the global challenges facing the world is far beyond the capacity of any one company or industry to address, and we advocate for businesses, governments and civil society to work together to better shape a more sustainable energy future.