Energy Giants Announce Record Profits – But Scale Back Sustainability Commitments
With energy companies and their associated IT operations being some of the world’s most polluting organizations, they have strict sustainability targets and commitments: but one global conglomerate appears to be backtracking on their efforts.
With energy prices soaring worldwide after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, one household name announced record profits in their 2022 figures: reaching some $27.7 billion. Unsurprisingly, this has led to outroar from customers who believe such organizations should pay more tax as they struggle to meet the costs of skyrocketing bills. However, one such other aspect has widely sailed under the radar for outrage: and that is they’re scaling back their plans to cut carbon emissions.
Energy companies have long committed to reducing their oil and gas usage long-term; investing in greener alternatives and transitioning to these. This conglomerate in particular was the first of the ‘giants’ to announce a target of reaching net zero emissions by 2050 and had set a goal of reaching levels 35-40% lower by 2030. However, along with the announcement of these vast profits came to a backtrack – a new target of just 20-30% by 2030. This was blamed on a need to “continue investing in oil and gas to meet current demands”.
So we can expect other energy firms to follow suit? Certainly many are reporting similarly eye-watering profit levels as the price of Brent crude oil reached almost $128 a barrel (despite it not falling to around the $80 mark), with gas prices having experienced a similar fluctuation. While the UK government did set an Energy Profit Levy on money made, this only applies to the extraction of British oil and gas and can be reduced with some sustainability efforts; such as decommissioning North Sea oil platforms. With energy businesses now wise to this, it’s not unlikely that they’ll find smarter ways to maintain the sustainability commitments that will lessen their financial burden while losing focus on others.
Of course, we know at Procurri that there are significant sustainability efforts that can be made by these firms in areas other than mining. Such enterprises have vast IT operations and huge commitments toward reducing energy usage can be made in streamlining these services. This includes:
- The deployment of refurbished hardware in place of new equipment where fresh hardware isn’t necessary
- The extension of IT assets’ lifecycle through the utilization of Third Party Maintenance once systems reach their End of Service Life (EOSL) point
- The ethical and environmentally friendly disposition of hardware when it’s truly no longer required, using zero-to-landfill ITAD services.
Indeed while industry analysts note that the exceptionally high prices of oil and gas are only a temporary situation, sustainability commitments certainly shouldn’t be: and so responsibilities must be stated, stuck to, and satisfied. Procurri can help – get in touch to learn more and equate profits and prosperity with ethics and environmental credentials.
