Page 14 - Suncor Report on Sustainability 2014 - English

12 Suncor: report on sustainability 2014

Environmental performance

continued

from upgrading to our tailings ponds – and In 2013, we undertook efforts to more accurately

contribute to our long-term tailings pond quantify fugitive emissions from operations.
reclamation projects.
This has resulted in lower VOC emission values

as compared to previous years.
The third phase of our strategy will target

further reductions by designing more systems We also saw a reduction in SO2 and NOX
to reduce and reuse water (tailings or emissions from our Oil Sands energy and utilities

wastewater) from operations for a variety
(E&U) plant in 2013. This can be attributed to the
of purposes, further reducing the amount
use of alternate fuels and major outages that

of fresh water we require.
occurred at the E&U plant. Extensive sampling
in our Oil Sands mining areas, dedicated disposal

We closely monitor our operations to ensure
sites and ponds, along with increased testing
we meet or exceed existing and future water frequency, provided better representative data

quality standards and environmental monitoring and allowed for more accurate quantiication of
requirements. We strongly support recent fugitive VOC emissions from mining operations.

moves by the Alberta and Canadian
governments to strengthen environmental * Note: In September 2013, we closed the previously announced
sale of our conventional natural gas business in Western Canada.
monitoring of the oil sands region.
Excluded from the sale were the majority of our unconventional
natural gas properties in British Columbia.

Air
We are committed to managing air quality Land disturbance, reclamation

near our operations and are working on and biodiversity
achieving a 10 per cent absolute reduction in Our land stewardship is focused in three key areas:

air emissions (nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides – reducing the impact of our operations on
and volatile organic compounds) by 2015 as land resources through scientiic research

compared to 2007.
and best management practices
– accelerating the pace of progressive

We are a member of the Wood Buffalo reclamation of disturbed lands, including
Environmental Association, which monitors the reclamation of tailings ponds

air quality across the Wood Buffalo region – working internally and with industry peers

365 days a year, 24 hours a day. We also to conserve and promote natural habitat
support air monitoring through a number of for birds, mammals and ish species.

other multi-stakeholder air shed organizations
in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec.
Since oil sands production began in 1967, we

have disturbed 21,690 hectares of land through
Overall, total reported air emissions decreased our mining operations. As of the end of 2013,

by 20 per cent compared to 2012 levels. This was we had reclaimed* 1,708 hectares, or about
primarily due to a decrease in emissions from eight per cent of the total. Our goal is to

Oil Sands and the divestiture of the majority of ultimately return all disturbed lands to a
our conventional natural gas business*.
self-sustaining, boreal forest ecosystem.