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Protecting the environment
Our environmental management systems
continue to help us manage our activities in a
manner that protects and, where appropriate,
improves the environment. During the past
year, our US distribution companies achieved
certification to the ISO 14001 environmental
management system, bringing the percentage
of employees across the Group working to
certified ISO 14001 systems to over 80%.
In March 2004, we were once again placed in
the ‘Premier League’ of companies in Business
in the Environment’s Index of Corporate
Environmental Engagement, scoring over 99%.
Significant environmental incidents arising
directly from the Group’s activities increased
from 32 in 2002/03 to 46 in 2003/04. Incidents
resulting from third party activities, such as
damage to gas pipes, also increased from 12 to
26. We believe most of the increase is due to
improved categorisation and reporting by UK
Gas Distribution.
None of these incidents has led to environmental
damage that resulted in prosecution by
enforcement bodies. However, in the US, we
received fines totalling $7,850 for inadequate
labelling of waste containers in Rhode Island
and a breach of hazardous waste manifest
regulations in New York state. These were
procedural breaches and in neither case was
the environment damaged.
As with safety, we investigate all environmental
incidents and lessons learnt are communicated
throughout the Group, where appropriate. |
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Contaminated land
We continue to manage our portfolio of
potentially contaminated land. This
contamination has mainly arisen from the
previous manufacture of gas from coal and
oil and from older electrical substations where
there is a risk that the ground may have been
contaminated with oil in the past through
accidental spillage or leakage from equipment.
Sites can sometimes have a complex mix of
contamination dating back to the 19th century.
In the US, we have responsibility for 167
contaminated sites. Risk assessments have been
carried out at all these sites and we have
completed remediation projects at 34 during
2003/04. In the UK, we operate one of the
country’s largest clean up programmes.
SecondSite Property, the Group business that
manages, cleans up and disposes of surplus,
non-operational properties, manages 497
potentially contaminated sites and has completed
remediation work at 33 locations.
Climate change
We support international efforts to reduce climate
change and continue to make progress in
reducing our emissions of greenhouse gases.
Text version
During 2003/04, our total greenhouse gas
emissions amounted to some 10.6 million tonnes
CO2 equivalent. Our largest source of greenhouse
gas emissions continues to be methane leakage
and venting from the UK and US gas networks, accounting for approximately 49.5% of our total
emissions. In the UK, most of this leakage is
associated with the joints on older cast iron pipes.
We have a long-term programme to replace this
type of pipe. Last year alone, approximately
1,600 miles of iron pipe were decommissioned.
An analysis of our greenhouse gas emissions,
including those associated with sulphur
hexafluoride, compressors on our gas network,
energy use and transport, is available on our
website, www.ngtgroup.com/responsibility.
In the US, our energy efficiency programmes
have continued to deliver savings to our
customers and have also contributed to
reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Over the
last year, our customers have saved nearly
2.25 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, equating
to over 1.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Electric and magnetic fields
Electric and magnetic fields (EMFs) are
generated from a wide variety of sources,
including our power lines and telecommunications
infrastructure. The balance of scientific evidence
is against EMFs resulting in adverse health
effects and, in our view, the benefits vastly
outweigh any potential risk. However, the
perception that EMFs may do so is evident in
parts of society, and we take this very seriously.
We look to government and regulators to
identify any precautionary measures that may
be necessary, as they can evaluate the science and weigh costs and benefits on behalf of
society as a whole.
We continue to facilitate constructive dialogue
between parties that have an interest in EMFs.
We also support high quality research and
development in this area and seek to ensure
the results are published wherever possible.
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