At SABIC we devote a substantial part of our energies to protecting the environment. As a responsible corporation, we have an obligation to manage our resources so as to protect the environments in which we do business. This includes building and engineering our plants to minimize their environmental impact, enforcing stringent pollution-control measures and manufacturing environmentally friendly goods.

We are always looking for new ways to become a cleaner and greener organization and to protect the air, water and soil surrounding our operations.

Protecting the air

All our plants have been designed to be fuel-efficient, and SABIC has an extensive network of fuel-monitoring systems, as well as an emissions-monitoring program, to help minimize our impact on the environment.

Protecting water and marine life

SABIC’s facilities are designed to include advanced technologies for recovering, recycling and reusing water, and we pay special attention to protecting marine life. Cooling systems that use seawater are designed to prevent damage to aquatic plants and animals, and all water discharges from the plants are controlled to meet stringent environmental standards.

Protecting the land, vegetation and wildlife

We have installed wells and advanced computer systems to monitor the groundwater throughout our manufacturing facilities. SABIC also monitors the condition of the soil at its facilities to ensure that there is no impact on local flora or fauna.

Waste management

We follow the 3R strategy – reuse, recycle, recover – with all our waste. Our waste-management programs control and isolate waste produced on our sites, and all our plants are equipped with modern technology to minimize the amount of waste we produce. Major waste-management activities include recovering noble metals, recycling used oil and using baghouse dust (dust from industrial air filters) in concrete cement. Waste disposal, when necessary, is conducted according to international guidelines.

Environmental audits

In new projects, we try to anticipate future environmental regulations, so we’re always up to date. We hold regular environmental audits on all our operations in order to monitor and minimize our ecological impact. We strive to balance economic and environmental considerations, working closely with government agencies, international organizations, our suppliers, contractors and employees to implement our environmental policies and spread good practice.

Environmental policy

We operate in the petrochemical, chemical, fertilizer and metal industry sectors, and we recognize that our activities and products could possibly affect the environment.  We are proactive in taking all reasonable measures to reduce these effects. Our environmental policy commitments are to:

• Integrate environmental considerations with other business priorities.

• Identify the key environmental costs of our operations and either minimize or prevent them, seizing particularly upon opportunities to prevent pollution.

• Train and educate our management and employees in environmental matters, and promote environmental awareness among our suppliers, contractors and customers.

• Comply with applicable regulatory and corporate requirements and relevant international agreements.

• Set objectives for improving our environmental performance and insist that senior management be accountable for achieving these objectives.

• Implement management systems consistent with the SABIC Environmental Manual and seek third-party certification to ISO 14001.

• Encourage key business partners to implement environmental policies and requirements that are consistent with SABIC’s, and to conform to internationally recognized environmental management standards.

We will regularly evaluate the environmental management and performance of our business units, affiliate companies and key business partners and report publicly on our achievements.