Environmental management and compliance
Environmental protection, safety, and legal compliance are cornerstones of Neste operations.
All Neste operations must comply with all applicable environmental regulatory requirements. The environmental permits specify the terms and conditions of operations, and our operations are responsible to comply with those terms and conditions.
All of our refineries and additionally all terminals and storages as well as service stations in Finland and Baltics have been certified in accordance with the requirements of the ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 standards. Besides the ISO management systems, environmental management at Neste involves several principles and guidelines. Our key policies and principles concerning environmental matters related to our own operations are Neste Sustainability Policy, Sustainability Principle and Neste Environmental Management Principle (internal).
In 2023, the Neste Environmental Management Principle was reviewed and amended to improve compliance assurance and environmental performance in all our operations by increasing the level of ambition in environmental management.The reviewed Environmental Management Principle also takes into account the new requirements of EU´s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS).
The Environmental Management Principle gives detailed minimum requirements for all Neste operations in the following areas:
Environmental roles and responsibilities
Environmental aspects and impacts
Including emissions to air, water and soil + waste
Water withdrawal and discharge
Environmental planning in investment projects and changes
Environmental Risk Management
Environmentally critical operations identification
Environmentally critical systems and equipment
Soil and Groundwater Protection Program
Waste and hazardous waste handling and disposal
Environmental complaints / concerns
Compliance with Legislation and Regulations
Management of certain substances of concern
Performance measuring, monitoring and reporting
Continuous improvement
Neste aims to improve its environmental performance and reporting of its operations through regular environmental compliance reporting, which is used to examine leaks and other environmental deviations that may have occurred (lagging indicators), as well as the availability of pollution prevention technology, availability alerts and compliance critical projects (leading indicators).
Systematic monitoring of the environment
Our refineries are located next to waterways. Porvoo refinery is located close to natural habitats. Therefore our environmental monitoring is particularly systematic at the Porvoo refinery.
Environmental monitoring is included in the requirements of our refineries' environmental permits. Groundwater monitoring takes place at selected terminals and retail sites.
In case of incidents, we rectify any damage to the environment without delay. Associated with normal operations, our refineries make impact assessments from time to time. At the Porvoo site, this is done also by finding out about the state of bioindicators, such as lichens and mosses.
Preserved and protected areas near our refineries
Nature conservation areas or protected sites are located close to our refinery in Porvoo, Finland. The Stormossen bog, a 75-hectare domed bog, to the west of the Porvoo refinery is protected and is part of the European Natura 2000 network of nature conservation sites.
At the Naantali site, we have some areas that we have protected in the past. The area is forest, voluntarily protected under national legislation. The protected area is three hectares of the total 300 hectares. Other operational sites we own are located in more industrial areas, with a lower likelihood of impacting areas of high biodiversity value.
Our refineries in Rotterdam and Singapore are located on industrial areas built on reclaimed ground.
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