Social Responsibility - The NSG Group and the Environment
The NSG Group takes its environmental responsibilities extremely seriously. The Group's operations are required to meet all legislative standards as a minimum, and where local requirements are not considered sufficient to address an issue, the Group's corporate standards do. Pilkington products from the NSG Group make important contributions to people's wellbeing, their quality of life and to the conservation of energy worldwide. Significant effort continues to be directed towards improving environmental performance and ensuring that quality products are manufactured that have a positive impact on the environment.
The calendar year 2007 was the third and final year of phase 1 of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme in Europe. All our European glass manufacturing facilities operated under the constraints of the EU ETS. All Pilkington sites participating in the UK Climate Change Agreements (UK CCA) and UK emissions Trading Scheme were opted out of the first phase of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. As a policy decision, the UK sites were included in the verification audit process. All facilities prescribed under the EU ETS successfully passed the independent verification audits. In the UK, additional audit requirements under the UK CCA were also complied with.
The EU ETS covers Pilkington float and rolled glass manufacturing and other plants with large-scale combustion processes. Risk modelling has been used to explore the likely exposure of the business, based on the published national and individual installation carbon allocations over the period 2005-2008. The Company believes that, despite marked differences in the approach taken to allocations by individual member states, the allocated allowances for the Group will, with good energy management, be sufficient to cover expected emissions during this period.
The emission of carbon dioxide is recorded in different ways reflecting variations in energy and climate change policy in different countries. The total carbon dioxide figures quoted include the emissions associated with the generation of the electricity used, as well as that emitted during the production process, from the combustion of fuel and the decomposition of raw materials. On this measure the total emissions were 5.1 million tonnes in 2007.
The second method excludes carbon dioxide emitted during electricity generation. This method is consistent with that applied to the EU Emissions Trading Directive. Emissions measured in this way mounted to 4.0 million tonnes in 2007. In Europe fewer gas supply constraints coupled with improved production efficiencies enabled improved specific emission of carbon dioxide in glass manufacture, some 7 per cent lower than the previous year. Elsewhere in the world the enforced reliance on heavy fuel oil meant the overall specific carbon dioxide emissions for the Group remained some 12 per cent higher than in Europe.
This is not the complete picture. The advent of carbon trading means that increases in absolute emissions may be offset by the surrender of certified carbon dioxide allowances. In 2007, 66,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide allowances were surrendered to meet obligations under the UK CCA and the EU ETS. The Group has continued to certify its manufacturing facilities to the internationally recognised ISO14001 environmental standard and now has 69 certified sites around the world, representing 70 per cent of business by turnover. Pilkington Automotive was one of the first companies in the automotive industry to achieve a corporate certificate for environmental management. A single DIN EN ISO 14001 certificate covers Pilkington Automotive's sites worldwide.
The NSG Group continues to work with regulatory authorities worldwide on issues relating to historic industrial activity on and around Group premises. The safety of neighbours and employees and the protection of the environment remain of paramount concern.