Enbridge Sustainability Report: Mixed GHG Results

Canadian energy distribution, transmission and generation company Enbridge has released its 2013 corporate social responsibility report.

GHGs

• The company cut direct GHG emissions from its Canadian operations by 21 percent below 1990 levels by 2011.
• For Enbridge’s liquid pipelines business, scope 1 emissions fell from 2011 to 2012, and scope 2 emissions rose (see chart - the report also provides data back to 2009).
• For its gas transportation business, scope 1 emissions rose from 2011 to 2012, and scope 2 emissions fell.
• For its Enbridge Gas Distribution business unit in Canada (but excluding EGD's storage operations), the company is targeting a 5 percent reduction from 2011 levels by 2015, relative to its number of customers.
• In 2012, the business completed a long-term project to replace about 1,800 kilometres of aging cast iron and bare steel pipe with coated steel and plastic pipe, which cut CO2e by about 122,000 metric tons.
• Enbridge says it has already secured the “easy” reductions, and the next round will be more difficult to achieve. The company describes its GHG reduction challenges as: increased demand for energy; operational growth; and diversity of operations.
• Enbridge says it will set future targets for reducing direct emissions from its assets once it establishes a more robust baseline.

• Since 2002, Enbridge has invested over $3 billion in wind, solar, geothermal, waste heat recovery, and other alternative energy technology projects, with a total capacity of more than 1,700 MW.
• It plans to double its renewable and alternative energy production capacity from 2011 to 2016.
• Through its “Neutral Footprint” commitments, the company has pledged to generate a kilowatt hour of renewable energy for every kilowatt hour of additional energy its operations consume.

• About 95 per cent of the EGD unit’s light-duty fleet vehicles, as well as six of its heavy-duty dump trucks, run on natural gas, cutting emissions by 460 metric tons of CO2e per year.

• In 2012, company-wide, Enbridge had 85 reportable commodity (liquid) spills totaling about 10,224 bbls, of which 68 had a volume of 10 bbls or less and two were significant. (Enbridge defines “significant spill” as any commodity off-site release that is greater than 100 bbls or entails clean-up costs of $1 million or more.)
• It had one reportable gas release totaling 4.25 million standard cubic feet.
• Enbridge's company-wide capital investment in systems integrity and maintenance was about $2.0 billion, and it expected the figure to reach about $2.4 billion in 2013.
• In July 2012, the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration issued a $3.7 million civil penalty against Enbridge related to the company’s Line 6B, which spilled more than 20,000 barrels of heavy crude into the Kalamazoo River near Marshall, Mich., in 2010.

• Of the roughly 200,000 metric tons of pipe that Enbridge bought from its primary supplier, Evraz Inc. NA, in 2012, 189,000 metric tons came from recycled steel.
• EGD bought about 982 metric tons of polyethylene pipe in 2012, and 51 per cent of total pipe (above 2-inch diameter Nominal Pipe Size) included up to 30 per cent recycled material.

• All of the Gas Transportation’s business processes that use water are closed loop systems, resulting in minimal water loss, the company says.
• At this time, GT does not track its total water use.

• The report provides details on performance in 2012, and significant developments in the first half of 2013.
• It was prepared using the GRI G3.1 reporting guidelines.
• The company is currently testing its Emissions Data Management System for use with GHG emissions.
• It expects Phase 2, which will manage criteria air contaminant emissions data, to be operational by the third quarter of 2013.