Sustainable development in Shell

We aim to deliver benefits and reduce our impact through the choices we make about which projects to invest in, by making more energy efficient products, and by reducing the impact of our operations.

We develop products and services to help meet the need for clean, convenient and affordable energy – for example by producing more cleaner-burning natural gas, and by working to develop a transport biofuels business.

One of our goals is to improve the way we design, build and run our operations to lessen environmental impact and to benefit local communities.

Our Business Principles have included our commitment to contribute to sustainable development since 1997. It requires us to balance short- and long-term interests, and to integrate economic, environmental and social considerations into business decision-making.

Our contribution to sustainable development adds to our business value, appealing to customers and business partners and helping us to attract and retain staff. We can, for example, develop cleaner products and services to meet customer needs by staying up to date with our customers’ values and closely monitoring changes to regulatory requirements.

We reduce operational and financial risk further by listening to local communities and addressing their expectations, cutting the chance of project delays, approval failures or disruption to our operations.

New and cleaner technologies can also help to increase the efficiency of our operations and make savings on the current and future costs of emissions. They can even create fresh income streams, such as through carbon credits.