Continuously improving our strategies and processes to enhance sustainability of our own business and our customers.
Our commitment to strong ESG performance goes beyond what we do every day as a company – it is woven into the fibers of our culture. Our remarkable employees are essential in building a sustainable organization and helping us reach our goal of being a trusted energy and environmental waste management infrastructure leader with strong ESG performance.
Climate Change Action
To fulfill our climate change commitment, SECURE is formalizing a Climate Action Plan to direct our efforts on energy efficiency and emissions reduction.
SECURE commits to addressing climate considerations in our overall business strategy, corporate development, risk management and business models. Reducing GHG emission intensity by 15% by the end of 2024 means action starts today as we strive for net-zero by 2050. SECURE is considering multiple options to improve energy efficiency and reduce our carbon footprint as we take action towards achieving our reduction targets and assisting our customers with meeting theirs. SECURE is pursuing process efficiencies, investment in technology, formalizing fleet management systems, the use of GHG offsets, increased GHG monitoring and more robust emission tracking on our path to achieving net-zero.
Learn more about our Climate Strategy.
Emissions
Absolute Emissions
From an absolute basis, overall emissions increased by 6% compared to 2021 due to increased activity. In 2022, our Waste Processing Facilities business line handled 15% more fluids, our Metals Recycling business line shipped out 30% more scrap metal, and our Landfill business line received 26% more waste.
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Absolute Scope 1 emissions in 2022 were 120,726 tonnes of CO2e
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Absolute Scope 2 emissions in 2022 were 117,470 tonnes of CO2e
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Emissions by Source
The majority of SECURE’s Scope 1 emissions are from the combustion of natural gas to power processes and heat facilities. A few sites, primarily our United States operations, utilize propane to run stationary fuel combustion equipment. Diesel and gasoline are used for transportation and are combusted in our vehicles and heavy equipment fleets. Our Scope 2 emissions are from purchased electricity to power facilities and offices.
In 2022, SECURE had the following emissions breakdown by source:
- Electricity 49%
- Natural Gas 36%
- Diesel 10%
- Gasoline 4%
- Propane 2%
Greenhouse Gas Emission Intensity
SECURE saw decreases in emission intensities across the following business lines:
- Waste Processing Facilities
- 2 kg CO2e/m3 of fluid received, down 10% from 2021
- Landfills
- 8 kg CO2e/tonne of waste landfilled, down 12% from 2021
- Metals Recycling
- 3 kg CO2e/tonne of scrap shipped out, down 4% from 2021
These decreases in intensity reinforce that initiatives taken in 2022 contributed to reduced emissions and improved performance.
Fugitive Emissions
Access to data required for emissions reporting has improved along with our quantification, which enabled us to include tonnes of CO2e from fugitive emissions and venting that were not previously included in our Scope 1 emissions. Adjustments were made starting with 2022 data, resulting in a more comprehensive and meaningful inventory.
In 2021, we increased Optical Gas Imaging (OGI) assessments by 22% with 20 sites increasing their assessment frequency from annual to tri-annual. The streamlined system ensures greater consistency in how monitoring data is tracked, managed, and reported to regulatory agencies.
Regulatory Driven Emission Reduction Programs
As governments and regulators strengthen their climate plans, SECURE monitors the evolving landscape and updates our calculation protocols to adapt to the new regulations.
Voluntary participation in the governments of Alberta and Saskatchewan’s Technology Innovation and Emissions Regulation (TIER) and Output-Based Performance Standard (OBPS) regulations has allowed SECURE’s waste processing facilities to be exempt from the federal fuel charge and to generate carbon credits by reducing GHG emissions below reduction targets. SECURE’s Alberta aggregate generated 982 emission performance credits in 2022. Independent verification of SECURE’s emissions return submission for 2021 for the OBPS program determined we expect 1,725 emission performance credits in 2023.
Fleet Management
To meet some of the objectives outlined in our Path to Net-Zero, we have started to explore options for reducing emissions generated from our vehicle, heavy equipment, and mobile equipment fleets. Some initiatives taken in 2022 include:
- Working with two companies offering new technology that utilizes hydrogen to improve engine combustion efficiency. Additional testing with one of the companies will progress into 2023 and the other will not go forward because the technology provider decided not to proceed with testing the technology.
- Our Fleet Management Team began installing onboard monitoring technology in some of our commercial vehicles and heavy equipment fleets to enable better data capture.
- SECURE sought lower emission equipment, where possible, to replace equipment that has reached the end of its useful life.
Energy Optimization PI Program
In 2020, SECURE launched an Energy Optimization PI Program focused on the collection of operational data to optimize our electricity-intensive processes. Through real-time analytics, the Business Intelligence team provided actionable insights and best practices for field operations to implement. One outcome of this program was an optimized approach to determine when to increase or decrease equipment usage given market demands to minimize electricity use and intensity.
Deployment of technology to the acquired facilities to collect operational data is ongoing and will continue in 2023. Sites with data analytics in place realized an incremental 2.2% energy intensity savings in 2022, with a combined 14% energy intensity savings realized since 2020.