Our Policy
We recognize the importance of addressing the increasingly diverse global environmental issues connected to our business activities, including climate change, biodiversity, and water and waste management. We have therefore included initiatives to address such issues and to create environmental value as HSE management enhancements in our INPEX Vision @2022.1
With this in mind, in December 2022, we revised our HSE Policy2 and established new policies and commitments on biodiversity conservation, water management, and waste management.3
In this way, in addition to our traditional management initiatives to avoid, mitigate, or compensate for negative impacts on the environment surrounding our projects, we can contribute to the creation of environmental value by working to promote a net positive approach to biodiversity and help create a circular economy through appropriate management of waste.
2 Health, Safety and Environmental Policy (HSE Policy)
3 Policies and commitments on biodiversity conservation, water management, and waste management
Environmental Management Promotion and Governance
Our environmental management, including biodiversity conservation, are overseen by our Board of Directors and Executive Committee.
In December 2022, the Board of Directors reviewed and approved new policies and commitments on biodiversity conservation, water management, and waste management.
Our environmental management initiatives are regularly discussed in our HSE Forum, and other meetings open to all stakeholders within the Company. The results of these discussions are reported to and deliberated by the Corporate HSE Committee, and important matters are reported to the Board of Directors.
Environmental Management Document Architecture and Hierarchy
In FY2022, while revising our HSE Policy, we also reviewed and reorganized our Group-wide environmental management document architecture and hierarchy to ensure a consistent approach across the Group.
We did this by incorporating the commitments and objectives of our top-level HSEMS documents—being our HSE Policy and policies and commitments on biodiversity conservation, water management, and waste management—into lower-level documents that include specific actions plans. Those documents include our corporate environmental targets, our fourth Corporate HSE Mid-term Plan (strategy), Corporate Environmental Management Plan (three-year roadmap), and HSE Programs (annual).
Corporate Environmental Targets
In FY2019, we established five corporate environmental targets as Group-wide targets for environmental management, and 12 environmental KPIs as indicators of target achievement. Every year, we confirm progress toward these environmental KPIs and their levels of achievement and have been steadily achieving the environmental KPIs through initiatives over the past four years.
In FY 2022, while updating our HSE Policy and drafting the new policy and commitment documents, we also established new environmental targets and KPIs.
From FY2023, we will implement Group-wide environmental management initiatives under these new environmental targets and KPIs, while making continuous improvements through application of the PDCA cycle.
Environmental target 1 |
Low-carbonization in operations |
|---|---|
Environmental target 2 |
Group-wide environmental management |
Environmental target 3 |
Proper waste disposal and creation of a circular economy |
Environmental target 4 |
Biodiversity conservation |
Environmental target 5 |
Water resource management |
Prevention of Environmental Pollution
In addition to complying with environmental laws and regulations of the countries in which we operate, we identify and assess environmental risks and impacts associated with our business activities, and take measures to prevent environmental pollution.
In FY2022, there were no serious violations of environmental laws or regulations within our business operations.
Going forward, we will continue working with relevant departments in Japan and overseas to ensure compliance with environmental laws and regulations and the prevention of environmental pollution.
Prevention of Air Pollution
To reduce the impact of our business operations on air quality, we monitor and manage our emissions and air quality in line with the laws and regulations of countries in which we operate our projects, and international good practice.
Atmospheric pollutants emitted from our project sites include sulfur oxides (SOx), nitrogen oxides (NOx), particulate matter (PM), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). At our operator projects, we manage emissions by identifying the sources of pollutants—such as production processes, fuel combustion facilities, venting of natural gas, and shipment by tank trucks—and measuring the amount of emissions released.
Our Group-wide SOx emissions decreased by around 67% to 1,008 tons in FY2022 compared to FY2021. Our NOx emissions, at 4,145 tons, were largely unchanged from FY2021. Non-methane VOC (NMVOC) emissions were 4,305 tons, down approximately 27% from the previous fiscal year. This decrease was mainly due to the reduction in flaring activities—which contain high concentrations of NMVOCs—at Ichthys LNG facilities. With this reduced flaring and stable operations at Ichthys LNG, we also confirmed a reduction in PM emissions as well.
Annual SOx emissions in Japan & overseas
Annual NOx emissions in Japan & overseas
Annual NMVOC emissions in Japan & overseas
