Thierry Desmarest, Chairman and CEO of TotalFinaElf, addressed the Business, People and the Environment session of the French Business Confederation’s (MEDEF) summer conference yesterday. Following are excerpts from his presentation:
"What is at stake in sustainable development? To put it simply, the goal of sustainable development is to improve the quality of life for present and future generations in remaining vigilant as to the future of the planet. To reach that goal, we must find the right balance between mankind’s needs and the planet’s resources.
"A company like TotalFinaElf has its place in the process. (...) A wide-ranging debate on the issue was organized inside the Group and a policy was defined so that sustainable development would become an integral part of our corporate culture. For us, this is not a question of simply riding the bandwagon or a PR exercise. (...) To illustrate our commitment, I would like to discuss three themes that our Group is now concentrating on.
"First, I believe it is necessary to ensure the growth of our energy resources. During the 20th century, worldwide energy consumption increased 15-fold. (...) In order to ensure the development of the global economy in a sustainable manner, one thing we will have to do is renew and, if possible, increase our hydrocarbon reserves. (...) At the current rate of nearly four billion metric tons a year, the world is consuming the equivalent of the North Sea’s producible resources every three years. Thus, we feel that it is important to diversify our supplies by putting new resources into production, now accessible thanks to technological advances carried out over the past few years. (...) TotalFinaElf has acquired significant deepwater acreage in Angola, Gabon, Nigeria and the Gulf of Mexico. Similarly, in Venezuela, we have begun the production of heavy oil from the Orinoco Belt. New technological developments should increase these reserves threefold from their estimated current level of 15 billion metric tons.
"It is desirable to increase our contribution to renewable energies and we intend to participate in this movement. For example, considerable progress has been made in wind power over the past 15 years, with production from this source growing at a rate of 25% a year. We are developing windfarms at some of our facilities, such as the Dunkirk refinery, and we are considering offshore installations in the medium term.
"Our Group has always been very sensitive to the risks and uncertainties associated with rising levels of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. (...) Through the Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, we are financing work which is being conducted to give us a better understanding of these mechanisms.
"But it is, above all, a question of contributing to the reduction of such emissions. Given the strong growth in our activities, it is unrealistic to set absolute objectives. That is why our commitments involve reducing emissions by specific or relative values. In other words, they are expressed in metric tons of CO2 per metric ton of hydrocarbons processed or produced. (...) We should be able to bring our specific emissions down 20% from their 1990 levels by 2005 for all our gas- and oil-related activities worldwide.
"It is also a question of decoupling economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions. Our products must allow our customers to improve their performance by opting for low-emission, high-efficiency sources. For example, replacing an old coal-fired power plant with a modern gas-fired one reduces CO2 emissions to one-third of their previous levels. Better fuel quality has given us cleaner engines, and they run more efficiently because of improved combustion.
"In all of the countries where we operate, I think it is essential for a group like ours to try and improve the standard of living, create local businesses and transfer skills. This is especially true in countries where the standards are far below OECD levels. (...) The Group is often criticized for its operations in Myanmar (Burma), because the international community is very concerned about the country’s political and social structures. Yet, despite the problems, we have managed to turn our activities there into a development model for the rest of the country’s businesses. (...). Dialogue with local populations has allowed us to identify two of their priorities: healthcare and education. We have hired about 20 doctors and funded training for about 70 nurse’s aides. They are now providing 50,000 consultations and 10,000 vaccinations each year. In addition, the region now has 16 schools attended by 5,500 children, and the Group provides funding to pay 143 teachers. (...) Another example is in Nigeria, where in 1994, TotalFinaElf created a natural seed supply center to improve staple local crops. In five years, more than 3,000 farmers have been provided with seed and fertilizer and over 5,000 others have received technical support. The program has been extended to fish farming and will soon cover livestock breeding as well.
"One of the roles the Group’s Sustainable Development Task Force, which I asked to be set up, is to develop a systematic method for identifying, planning, managing and monitoring this type of project.
"Implementing the concept of sustainable development in a business like ours requires a lot of work. We see it as a factor in improving performance: staff motivation, accelerating the modernization of product and process development and integration in the local economic environment. Eventually, it could be a new strategic dimension.
"The keys to success are a clear concept, the staff’s allegiance and rigorous implementation." |
