Royal Dutch Shell plc Sustainability Report

08/05/2007; Royal Dutch Shell plc released its tenth Sustainability Report on its environmental and social performance. The report underlines the company's commitment to help meet the world's current and future energy needs in environmentally and socially responsible ways.

The Shell Sustainability Report 2006 outlines the company’s response to the energy challenge and climate change; reports progress in meeting demanding standards and expectations for business integrity and ethics, human rights, biodiversity, safety and local development; and discusses Shell’s efforts to address environmental and social concerns at two of its most important and challenging locations: Nigeria and Sakhalin.

Launching the report, Chief Executive Jeroen van der Veer said:

“The global energy challenge has three parts: to provide the energy to fuel development and reduce poverty; to keep supplies secure from disruption; and to do this in socially and environmentally responsible ways.

“Helping meet this challenge, while continuing to provide competitive financial returns, is at the heart of the commitment we made in 1997 to contribute to sustainable development.

“Last year showed, once again, how important environmental and social performance is to our business success,” Mr. van der Veer said.

2006 Report highlights

Standards and governance were strengthened through the first Shell-wide Code of Conduct; increased focus on sustainable development at the earliest stages of new upstream projects to identify and integrate environmental and social considerations; guidance on responsible public advocacy; and standardised social performance plans for all major facilities with communities nearby.
Investment in research and development, including field tests and involvement in third-party technologies, rose 50% to $1.2 billion. During the year Shell recruited over 3,000 technical professions and opened a major new Technology Centre in Bangalore, India.
The first large-scale demonstration projects for capturing and storing CO2 were announced: the ZeroGen project (Australia) and the Halten project (Norway). These two projects would reduce CO2 emissions by almost 3 million tonnes a year.
Real progress was made in addressing community concerns about the Corrib natural gas pipeline and terminal in Country Mayo (Ireland).
The 108MW Noordzee Wind offshore wind farm (developed by Shell Wind and power company Nuon) started production in late 2006, and offshore planning permission was received for the 1,000MW London Array project which would be the world’s largest wind farm (Shell is a partner in the London Array).
With the entry of Gazprom as the major shareholder, which Shell welcomes, Sakhalin II shareholders are fully committed to delivering a world-class project in all respects, including environmental and social performance.
Interviewed in the report Nigeria Country Chair, Basil Omiyi, reviews the rise in violence which led to the shutdown of half of Shell’s production in the Niger Delta, expresses hope for reconciliation with the Ogoni people, and discusses Shell’s actions to improve environmental performance, tackle corruption and support development.

As in 2005, Shell invited an External Review Committee (comprising six international experts in the environmental and social issues that matter most to Shell's stakeholders) to assess the 2006 report's balance, completeness and responsiveness based on the principles of the AA1000 Assurance Standard.

To see the full report please click on www.shell.com/sustainabilityreport

Editors note:

The External Review Committee was chaired by Aron Cramer, President and CEO, Business for Social Responsibility. The other members were:

Jermyn Brooks - Director of Private Sector Programmes, Transparency International
Roger Hammond – Development Director, Living Earth
Karin Ireton – Head of Sustainable Development Markets and Economics, Anglo American plc
Dr Li Lailai – National Programme Director LEAD and Director, Institute for Environment and Development, Beijing
Jonathan Lash – President, World Resources Institute.

Their uncensored assessment is published in the report.