Delivering on sustainable development

Integrated petroleum company Shell Canada Limited1 shares the world’s concerns about climate change and has a long-standing commitment to leadership in sustainable development.

So, when benchmarking in 2004 revealed substantial room for improvement in energy performance at the organisation’s Montreal refinery, top-level management ordered positive, substantive action.

The refinery was set the target of improving its Solomon Energy Intensity Index, EII™, the refining industry standard adopted by the American Petroleum Institute and the Canadian Petroleum Products Institute, by up to five points within five years. This could be equivalent to a reduction in the annual energy bill of up to $6 million.

The refinery personnel knew that there were many energy-management issues to be resolved. For instance, there were numerous minor steam leaks; analyses later revealed that the system losses and steam leaks were equivalent to the capacity of one of the site’s four boilers.

However, staff could not afford to divert attention away from their day-today routines – production issues such as maintaining product quality and raising productivity were more pressing.

Download the full article as a PDF. (PDF, 128 KB) - opens in new window