2014 – Year of Environmental Awareness
The meeting of environmental services’ heads from Gazprom’s subsidiaries was held to summarize the results of the Year of Ecology in Gazprom.
In 2013 Gazprom’s subsidiaries conducted over 8 thousand activities within the Year of Ecology. Over 70 thousand employees of Gazprom Group and circa 90 thousand involved contributors (pupils, students, members of employees’ families, and local community) took part in the campaign.
Throughout the country, the Company’s employees cleaned over 4.1 thousand hectares of urban and rural areas as well as recreation zones, planted over 284 thousand trees. More than 18.7 million fish juveniles of valuable species were released to the rivers and reservoirs in the European part of Russia as well as Siberia, Kamchatka and Sakhalin. Over 1,000 motor vehicles were switched to gas in subsidiaries.
In 2013 Gazprom Group’s expenses associated with nature conservation topped a record level of RUB 59.36 billion. In particular, last year the Company allocated RUB 24.95 billion to the construction of facilities related to environmental protection, RUB 12 billion to wastewater collection and treatment, RUB 5.82 billion to the prevention of air and soil pollution. In the past five years the overall costs of Gazprom Group for nature protection made up RUB 165.5 billion.
The meeting also emphasized that Gazprom paid the most careful attention to the ecology issues. The Company has been taking systemic and extensive efforts on nature conservation for the society’s benefit for many years.
In addition to obligatory requirements of Russian and international laws, Gazprom strictly complies with voluntary obligations in the ecology area, namely adoption and implementation of the Environmental Policy, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The Company discloses environmental information according to international standards, including a wide range of indicators in comparison with the domestic ones. Specifically, the Company publishes Environmental Reports every year and regularly issues the Sustainability Report in compliance with the Global Reporting Initiative.
The Company introduced the environmental management system and certified it to ISO 14001 standard. It is vertically integrated and unifies environmental bodies of the parent company and subsidiaries engaged in gas production, transmission, underground storage and treatment.
Considering positive results of the Year of Ecology, the decision was made to hold the Year of Environmental Awareness in 2014. The corresponding activities plan is approved.
Special consideration within the Year of Environmental Awareness will be given to the environmental training of population and environmental education of Gazprom Group’s employees and contractors. Approximately 6 thousand activities will be arranged. Thematic seminars, round tables, research and practice conferences, exhibitions, competitions, public lections will be held in Gazprom’s subsidiaries as well as in institutes, schools, and social entities across the country.
Source and Image Credit: Gazprom
