Planting mangroves, Songkhla Lake, Thailand
At Chevron, we understand that the most important challenges facing the global community today are complex and that the best hope of finding lasting solutions is through dialogue, collaboration and partnership. When these challenges touch our business, we act to share our insights based on decades of on-the-ground experience, and we openly inform our stakeholders of our views and the actions we are taking to address these challenges.
We value outreach and dialogue as a means to understanding stakeholder views and concerns, gain insight into emerging trends, improve our policies and processes, and foster collaborative relationships on issues of mutual concern. In 2008, we increased and deepened our engagement with a wide range of stakeholders on socioeconomic and environmental issues. We intend to increase the regularity of stakeholder engagement activities and further formalize our feedback efforts during 2009.
Chevron proactively works with government and nongovernment stakeholders to find solutions to climate regulatory issues. In the United States, we worked closely with the California Air Resources Board and the Western Regional Air Partnership (WRAP) — a collaborative group of state governments, tribal governments and various federal agencies — to develop the first voluntary methods in the country for reporting GHG emissions from oil and gas production for use by the Climate Action Registry. Our goal is to find cost-effective ways to accurately measure and control emissions in order to establish an accurate inventory base for future emissions reduction programs. Chevron contributed by sharing our operating and technical experience with stakeholders through facility tours for government agency staff and participation in the WRAP Technical Working Group.
In California, we assisted in developing the first mandatory GHG reporting regulation in the United States and in generating an accurate statewide GHG emissions inventory. Chevron continues to work with WRAP and the Western Climate Initiative, a group that includes several Western U.S. states and Canadian provinces, to develop the first U.S. mandatory emissions reporting methodology designed specifically for onshore oil and gas production. By working collaboratively, we hope to contribute to a program design that achieves an effective balance between the need for accuracy and practical, safe execution.
Exploring the potential benefits associated with any emerging energy source can be encouraging. But the path to commercializing new energy sources presents many challenges. The best way to solve these challenges is through collaboration. Chevron's strategy for biofuels development is to collaborate with the best talent at other companies, universities and government laboratories — to combine their knowledge of biomass with Chevron's expertise in making high-quality transportation fuels. Partnerships include Catchlight Energy LLC, our joint venture with Weyerhaeuser Co., and collaborations with the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of California at Davis, Texas A&M University, and the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels.
In developing advanced biofuels, successful feedstocks need to be scalable, sustainable and economically viable. They must have optimal physical and chemical properties and be able to thrive on marginal land that would not otherwise be used for food. Over the past few years, Chevron acquired a tremendous amount of knowledge about biomass and narrowed its list of potential biofuel feedstocks from more than 100 to fewer than 10.
Energy companies have been using seismic imaging for approximately 80 years. In seismic imaging, sound waves bounce off underground rock structures to reveal possible oil- and gas-bearing formations. Seismologists use ultrasensitive microphones to record the sound waves' echoes reflecting on the structures within the earth. By studying the echoes, petroleum geologists seek to calculate the depth and outlines of underground formations. This analysis may help them identify hidden oil- and gas-bearing reservoirs.
Chevron is participating with a number of oil and gas companies and the International Association of Geophysical Contractors, through the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers, to fund research studies under the Joint Industry Programme on Sound and Marine Life. The primary scope of the program's research, conducted by independent researchers and contractors, is to gain additional understanding of the potential effects of sound from the oil and gas industry's offshore exploration and production activities and how the potential effects may be mitigated.
Project results and progress in technology development, especially tools that detect marine animals in the water column and that better describe sound from industry sources, have advanced our understanding of the potential effects of sound on tissues and animal behavior.
Additional information about the potential effects of sound exposure can support oil and gas project planning and inform the scientific community and regulators about potential environmental effects. This information may also assist in making science-based decisions and promoting permitting efficiencies.
During a two-year Arctic exploration program, our community engagement team, as part of our Environmental, Social and Health Impact Assessment process, held numerous meetings with residents from Anaktuvuk Pass and other villages on Alaska's North Slope. Anaktuvuk Pass is the last remaining settlement of the Nunamiut (People of the Land) Inupiat communities in Alaska (pictured).
The meetings enabled the residents to learn about Chevron's drilling plans and express concerns about the possible effects on village life and their relationship to the land — including subsistence hunting activities. The consultation process gave us an opportunity to adjust project planning to mitigate these issues, including taking special care around the drill site to prevent disruption to local culture.
Before exploration, we also conducted baseline studies of the area's environment and wildlife, which resulted in modification to the drilling plans in order to reduce potential impacts.
In another environmental effort that the company started in Alaska in 1991, Caring for the Kenai, Chevron and partner Tesoro Corp. sponsor an environmental awareness contest in which students compete for cash awards by developing practical, applicable solutions to preserve and improve the local environment. The students identify the issues they wish to address. Several first-place winners of this nationally recognized program received President's Environmental Youth Awards from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for their projects. To learn about Caring for the Kenai, visit CaringForTheKenai.com.
We engage with our employees through employee networks, town hall meetings, intranet communications, publications, an annual corporatewide teleconference with the chairman and periodic surveys. In 2009, several topical surveys on business strategy, program effectiveness, communications and other issues provided management with employee opinions.
Employees started and manage Chevron's 11 employee networks, which are open to any employee. The networks foster career development and often organize volunteer activities. In 2009, the XYZ (which addresses issues relevant to the X, Y and Z generations) and Boomers (which addresses issues relevant to the Baby Boom generation) networks in Bakersfield, California, were asked to hold an ingenuity brainstorming session with business leaders. Topics were sustainability and adding business value as the company plans for compliance with California's climate change legislation.
The group leveraged their diverse backgrounds and practical work experience to provide fresh perspectives on reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the area's Upstream operations. From the hundreds of ideas generated, some key proposals were to consider a Lean Sigma statistical analysis tool to improve energy efficiency and steam management, alternative energy technologies to increase steam generation efficiency, and a regional mass transit option for employee travel to multiple field locations.
Chevron scientist Susann Nordrum said, "What struck me most was that the perspectives of geologists and reservoir engineers were really different from the typical chemical and mechanical engineering approach."
Through our local content programs around the world, we engage our suppliers to help build their capacity. Our Contractor Health, Environment and Safety Management program and our programs for small, minority- and women-owned businesses help our contractors and suppliers achieve sustained growth and improved performance, which carries over into their work for other companies.
In October, Chevron hosted the 2009 Supplier/Contractor Safety Forum in Houston, Texas. Attendees included senior executives from approximately 60 key contractor and supplier companies and more than 180 business partners and Chevron managers. Speakers included executives from Chevron and supplier companies. The day comprised sharing practices and discussing what it takes to build and sustain a safety culture. The three key messages distilled from the forum were "make it personal, raise risk awareness and convey that safety is 24/7."
In 2009, to build upon our understanding of human rights issues in our operating areas, we engaged with a range of experts, including the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on business and human rights, the Institute for Human Rights and Business, The Fund for Peace, and the Danish Institute on Human Rights.
Together with the International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association, Chevron organized and hosted a conference on human rights and the extractive industry in sub- Saharan Africa. The conference convened in Cape Town, which enabled regional nongovernmental organizations, government officials and civil society to dialogue with us on collaborative solutions to business and human rights issues in the region.