The ORLEN Group has extended its sustainability reporting framework to include Scope 3 emissions, the company announced last week. This will enable ORLEN, the biggest energy company in Central and Eastern Europe, to quantify greenhouse gas emissions across the value chain.
The ORLEN Group’s disclosures will now include not only direct emissions from its production processes and those generated by suppliers, but also emissions related to the use of the Group’s products by end users. The Group has published data for 2019-2021, however, this does not include the recently acquired companies (Grupa Lotos and PGNiG), which will be covered in subsequent reporting cycles.
In Scope 1, ORLEN increased its emissions from 17.7 million tonnes CO2e in 2020 to 18.1 million t CO2e in 2021. However, the 2021 figure indicates an overall decrease when compared to 18.6 million tonnes CO2e emitted in 2019. A similar pattern can be seen in the newly-included Scope 3 emissions: Whilst emissions increased in 2021 (82.35 million) in comparison to 2020 (81.12 million), it remains lower than the 2019 emission levels (86.86 million). Scope 3 includes data from business travel emissions, which significantly dropped in 2020 (316) and returned to similar levels from 2019 (631) in 2021 (577). Interestingly, in the last three reporting years, emissions levels from waste resulting from operations sharply decreased from 13,382 in 2019 to 4,265 in 2021.
President of the PKN ORLEN Management Board, Daniel Obajtek said: “Annual reporting of the organisation’s carbon footprint is not only an expression of our concern for the environment, but also a business requirement highly relevant in our relations with the investor community. By consistently pursuing our strategy of net zero emissions and transparent reporting, we are able to negotiate attractive terms of financing for further strategic projects. It is by investing in new technologies and renewable energy sources that we are building our position as Central Europe’s leader in energy transition.”
Scope 3 reporting, in accordance with the GHG Protocol methodology, enables a quantifiable assessment of the execution of the Group’s carbon neutrality strategy, which is particularly relevant for potential investors and other stakeholders in the company’s business environment. It also impacts ESG ratings and the terms of financing the Group is able to obtain, necessary to make strategic investments in its energy transition and emission reduction goals. Full reporting of carbon footprint is also a response to the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
The EU CSRD was adopted in June 2022 which introduces more detailed reporting requirements and obliges large companies to report on wider sustainability areas such as environmental, social and human rights and governance factors. The relevant companies will have to apply the new rules for the first time in the 2024 financial year, for reports published in 2025.
ORLEN is the first multi-utility company in the region to have declared an aim to achieve emission neutrality by 2050. To achieve this goal, the Group aims to reduce carbon emissions from its existing refinery and petrochemical assets by 20 per cent and cut down carbon emissions per megawatt-hour of electricity by 33 per cent by 2030. The emission neutrality strategy is based on four pillars: Energy efficiency in production, zero-carbon power generation, fuels of the future, and green financing.
