Keppel Corporation has released its first sustainability report detailing its environmental performance, governance, safety standards and labour practices.
The report says that Keppel Corp saved about 44.8 million kilowatt hours in energy last year, enough to power 115,676 four-room Housing and Development Board flats for a month.
Investments have been substantial to optimise energy efficiency. For instance, Keppel Offshore and Marine (O&M) pumped $8 million into energy-saving equipment last year. The estimated energy savings each year would come up to $8.9 million.
A data centre in Dublin owned by Keppel Telecommunications & Transport (T&T), Citadel 100, switched to green electricity in 2009. In doing so, it cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 30,000 tonnes, the effect of taking 5,500 cars off the road.
Keppel also looked into how it could minimise water usage – a challenge when its energy generators and its shipyards require copious amounts of water for operations.
Keppel used 2.9 million cubic metres of NEWater in 2010 – about one-quarter of the Bedok Reservoir – and has raised consumption by 47 per cent from 1.97 million cubic metres the previous year.
Also, Keppel’s Senoko Waste-to-Energy Plant managed to recycle 56,133 cubic metres of water – the monthly water consumption of about 2,900 four-room households – from the waste that it collected.
Safety data was also disclosed for the purposes of the report. Keppel said that it had ‘four separate fatal cases involving our subcontracted workers’ who fell from elevated places in 2010. However, it managed to bring down its cumulative accident frequency rate in both its Singapore and overseas operations.
Keppel invested $23 million last year in improving safety in processes and infrastructure, as well as training to promote higher awareness for safety.
The report was done in line with the internationally accepted Global Reporting Initiative guidelines.
Keppel Corp chief executive Choo Chiau Beng personally chaired a Group Sustainability Steering Committee to oversee the direction of sustainability efforts across its different businesses. A special working committee then executes and tracks the progress of new initiatives.
Keppel’s efforts to disclose its group-wide environmental efforts stem from increasing expectations that companies ought to pay attention to issues beyond the sacred bottom line.
