What is Sustainability? Each company defines what sustainability means to its operations. For example, one company might look at sustainability as the need to find new chemical technologies to recycle plastics, while a different company sees sustainability as incorporating the latest digital technologies to improve plant reliability and safety.

 

No matter what path a company takes towards sustainability, the term is one of the crucial aspects within the Hydrocarbon Processing Industry (HPI). As TREE is developing a somewhat different definition of what sustainability means to its operations, Hydrocarbon Processing defines “Sustainability in the HPI” as the process of managing available resources, investments and technologies to maintain and optimize operations for greater safety, reliability, efficiency and environmental and social awareness.

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Sustainability is a crucial topic within the Oil and Gas industry. Several key technologies & issues in the oil and gas industry must be improved upon. These include: Flaring, water usage, methane emissions, plastics waste/recycling, greenhouse gas emissions and carbon reduction. To help increase sustainable activities, companies and/or individuals can:

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• Make the case for the benefits of what the oil and gas industry provide to the world;

• Encourage industry organizations to make a more effective argument to the benefits the industry provides, especially to society outside the oil and gas industry;

• Get involved in initiatives to make the oil and gas industry cleaner and minimize impact.