 On behalf of ChevronTexaco, CEO Dave O'Reilly receives an Award for Corporate Excellence from U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in recognition of the company's community support activities in Nigeria.
In 2003, we made steady progress in several key areas of corporate responsibility performance while continuing to expand our understanding and management of our social, economic and environmental impacts. We maintained our focus on exploring new ways to integrate corporate responsibility considerations into existing management systems and enhancing our policies and practices related to human rights and community engagement. During the year, we also expanded our corporate responsibility reporting to include global data on diversity, national origin and air emissions.
Award for Corporate Excellence. In 2003, our Nigerian affiliate received the U.S. State Department's Award for Corporate Excellence for its corporate citizenship activities in Nigeria. Specific initiatives cited included the airlift of more than 2,000 villagers to safety during interethnic and political conflicts in the western Niger Delta, a Riverboat Clinic to bring healthcare to thousands of people in the Niger Delta and ongoing HIV/AIDS prevention efforts in the country.
Safety. 2003 was ChevronTexaco's safest year ever in terms of overall recordable incidents. Despite this record, very regrettably we had 12 fatalities. Motor vehicle crashes remain the most frequent cause of death. Our approach to safety is founded on the belief that zero is attainable - as evidenced by the 26 ChevronTexaco units that received our "Zero Is Attainable" award in 2003 - and we will continue to strive to reach our ultimate goal of zero accidents and fatalities. Read more about health and safety.
HIV/AIDS Initiatives. We continued our efforts to help combat HIV/AIDS. At the end of 2003, we finalized a corporatewide HIV/AIDS policy. We also announced a new partnership with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Africa. In Angola, we expanded our program to include the provision of anti-retroviral drugs to ChevronTexaco employees and their families. Read more about HIV/AIDS initiatives.
Senior-Level Diversity. At the end of 2003, the global representation of women and non-Caucasian males in senior positions in ChevronTexaco globally was 19.5 percent, up from 16.7 percent in 2002. We continue to make progress toward achieving our senior management diversity goals. Read more about diversity.
Human Rights. As one of the original signatories to the Global Sullivan Principles, we have long advocated, supported and demonstrated the protection of human rights, consistent with the role of business. We remain committed to a management approach that enhances the sustainability of our long-standing results and fully integrates human rights considerations into our day-to-day operations.
Spill Performance. 2003 showed a significant performance improvement from the previous year. The volume of petroleum spilled fell by more than 50 percent from the previous year, exceeding our year-over-year target of a 20 percent reduction through 2006 and representing less than 20 barrels spilled per million barrels processed. Read more about spill performance.
Climate Change. Finding ways to meet growing energy demand while reducing long-term growth in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is among the most critical challenges facing the energy industry. It is a challenge we take seriously as we continue to implement our comprehensive climate change strategy. Our enterprisewide GHG emissions were approximately 64 million metric tons of CO2 and CO2 equivalents in 2003. In 2003, we also initiated a third-party verification of our GHG emissions and established a preliminary goal of 63 million metric tons for 2004. We also announced the transfer of ownership of our SANGEA™ Energy and Emissions Estimating System software to the American Petroleum Institute, at no charge, to promote standardization of GHG emissions accounting. Read more about climate change.
Energy Efficiency. We continued to make steady improvements in energy efficiency. In 2003, we achieved our highest efficiency level ever, representing a 22 percent decrease in energy consumption per unit of output since 1991. Read more about energy efficiency.
Advancing Hydrogen Technology. We are part of a team selected by the U.S. Department of Energy in 2004 to lead a five-year demonstration and validation project designed to showcase practical application of hydrogen energy technology. Under the project, we intend to provide the design and construction of up to six hydrogen fueling stations to be operated primarily in California. Read more about advancing energy technologies.
Harvard Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative. We announced we were contributing US$500,000 as a founding sponsor of a major initiative led by Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government to enhance corporate responsibility effectiveness. The initiative, which was officially launched in March 2004, will marshal resources of business, government, academia, civil society and the media to address some of the world's most pressing social, economic and environmental issues.
Organization of American States Award. We were honored by the Organization of American States in early 2004 for the programs we have under way, particularly in Venezuela, to help alleviate poverty in Latin America.
While we made considerable progress toward our objectives, we also have an increased appreciation of the challenge of implementing an integrated, systematic approach to corporate responsibility across the approximately 180 countries in which we operate. We remain committed to achieving the goals we have set out for ourselves and to continually improving our performance in this important area.
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