The greenhouse gas intensity of Australian energy company AGL's operated electricity generation assets decreased 13 percent compared to financial year 2011 levels, to 0.31 tCO2e per MWh, according to the company's latest sustainability report.
The company had an FY 2012 target to lower its emissions intensity to half the Australian electricity average. The FY 2012 figure puts the company's intensity at about 60 percent below the average, the report says.
The decrease was largely due to an increase in renewable energy generation as a result of new wind power coming on line and FY 2012 being the first full year of the Hallett 4 wind farm's operation. Energy from AGL's renewable sources increased 33 percent year-on-year, the report says. AGL met its target of sourcing 48 percent of its electricity from renewable sources in FY 2012, increasing its total renewable investment capacity to 1,740 MW, the report says.
However, the FY 2012 carbon intensity figures do not include the operations of Loy Yang power plant, which AGL acquired in June. If the FY 2012 figures were amended to include a full-year's worth of emissions from Loy Yang, the company's electricity intensity would be above the market average, the report says.
The footprint of AGL's supply chain fell 9 percent in FY 2012, according to the report. In FY 2011, AGL recorded 49.2 megatons of CO2e in its energy supply footprint compared to 46.5 megatons in FY 2012.
The company's supply chain footprint for electricity fell 3 percent year-on-year to 35.6 MtCO2e. This was largely due to a year-on-year decrease in generation intensity. Supply stayed fairly static at 33 TW, the report says
The company's energy supply footprint for gas fell 13 percent year-on-year to 10.9 MtCO2e. This is in line with a 14 percent decline in supply volumes, the report says.
During FY 2012 AGL generated around 280 metric tons of hazardous waste. More than 70 percent of the waste generated was waste oil or oily waste that was collected and sent to recycling facilities, where it can be refined into new fuel, the report says. Of the waste that went to landfill, around 40 percent was generated at the company's Torrens Island Power Station.
During FY 2012, AGL generated around 600,000 metric tons of non-hazardous waste. Around 68 percent of this total was drill cuttings from the company's Camden Gas Project, which were subsequently recycled into products such as building materials. The remainder of the non-hazardous waste was landfilled, the report says. The report does not include waste figures for earlier years.
In FY 2012, over 70 percent of the water consumed at AGL's sites comprised groundwater drawn from beneath the Torrens Island Power Station. Water consumption was down at the plant despite a slight increase in output. The cut in consumption was due to works to fix town water pipe leaks and improve the water use efficiency of of generating units, the report says. The report does not include exact figures for earlier years' water use, but it does include a graph of results (see above).
AGL is a constituent company in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, Asia Pacific Dow Jones Sustainability Index, Australian SAM Sustainability Index and FTSE4Good Index Series. In November AGL was recognized as one of Australia's leading companies on the Carbon Disclosure Project's Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index, which recognizes companies for disclosing risks and opportunities related to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions.
The report was compiled using the Global Reporting Initiative's reporting standards. It meets the requirements for an "A+" application level.
