Forbes has studied the harm and benefits that the largest Russian companies bring to the environment and compiled the first rating of environmental responsibility.
The largest domestic companies are industrial giants, and they are doomed to be non-ecological in accordance with the new green ethics. The Forbes editorial board took this for granted — two-thirds of the rating companies are engaged in non-ecological production to varying degrees — and focused on showing which of them spends more effort on compensating for harm to nature.
Forbes' understanding of an eco-friendly company does not differ from the one included in the Just 100 rating (a rating reflecting companies in the United States with the best ESG practices): the company must reduce emissions, make rational use of natural resources and introduce innovative practices and technologies. Ecologists and ESG specialists also helped with the choice.
How was the scoring performed
In the fall of 2020, when preparing the rating of the best employers in Russia, Forbes asked 200 of the country's largest companies to tell in detail about the environmental footprint they leave. These data were used to compile the rating of the most environmentally friendly companies. The long list of the rating includes 60 companies with maximum scores on environmental metrics.
All metrics for the rating of eco-friendly companies are divided into four groups with the same weight of 25%: "Harm reduction", "Environmental policy", "Resource use" and "Expert assessment". Before comparing companies by the first three metrics, they were divided by industry, and a comparison was made within them. For the overwhelming number of parameters, the z-estimation method was used, which allows us to determine how much a particular value differs from the average in the sample, which we assumed to be equal to 50 points.
Rating
The 30th place of the rating went to the ChTPZ group - one of the main popularizers of the principles of white metallurgy in Russia. In 2019-2024, the group plans to invest about 2 billion rubles in modernization, in particular, in the construction of new treatment facilities with an automatic filtration system and water flow within the framework of the AQA project.
PJSC Severstal took the 22nd place, overtaking such giants as Yandex, Baltika, McDonald's. Experts note Severstal for its successful work to reduce harmful emissions. Within the framework of the federal Clean Air project, the company has a commitment to reduce emissions by more than 66,000 tons by 2024. For comparison: in 2019, the Group's emissions amounted to 493,600 tons. At the end of 2020, Severstal selected several participants of the GreenTech Startup Booster ecostart accelerator to work, in particular, a project to replace traditional coal raw materials with biocox.
Novatek is one line higher, being 21st in the list. In the north of Yamal, Novatek is already building a second mega-plant for the production of liquefied natural gas, which is considered more environmentally friendly when burned than other types of fossil fuels. Novatek has also launched a plant for the production of low-tonnage LNG, which can be used as a gas engine fuel. At the end of 2020, at the Yamal LNG plant, the company, together with Siemens, launched the first project in Russia to generate electricity from hydrogen. Off the coast of Kamchatka, Novatek, together with the local government, is conducting ecomonitoring after the disaster that occurred in the fall of 2020.
The second ten of the rating is opened by the company "Transneft" (No. 19th in the list). The company manages about 67,000 km of pipelines, through which it transports 83% of the oil produced in Russia and 29% of the light oil products produced. Yulia Katasonova notes Transneft for having environmental certificates, accounting for resource consumption and pollution, as well as conducting more than 25 audits of the environmental management system in 2019. The company equips power transmission lines with bird protection devices, and at the port of Kozmino in the Far East it regularly grows the Primorsky scallop and releases it into the waters.
Lukoil occupies the 16th place. Semyon Kalmykov from Bellona calls Lukoil one of the most open of Russian oil companies in terms of the environmental program and ambitions. "Taking into account the frequent cases of damage to soils and terrain by oil spills over the past year, Lukoil and its subsidiaries remained on the sidelines, which may indicate a desire to maintain the equipment used in proper shape," says Kalmykov.
TMK is on the 13th line above Russian Railways and Tatneft. Russia's largest steel pipe manufacturer has spent up to 20 billion rubles on modernization over the past 15 years, says Mikhail Zamarin. For example, replacing outdated open-hearth furnaces with electric production at TMK plants has reduced emissions and the need for electricity. TMK assures that the technologies used in the production make it possible to protect nature when laying pipes: for example, the marine environment from pollution, and permafrost from thermal effects.
Finally, in the top ten, Sibur Holding is in 8th place. It is not easy to be an eco-friendly company if your activity is related to oil and plastic, Mikhail Zamarin argues and calls Sibur a perfect example in this regard: "In principle, everything is standard: efficient use of resources, reducing the impact on the ecosystem, waste management, lean manufacturing. But it is systematical and has a huge budget." In 2020, Sibur launched a project to produce green PET pellets at the Polyef enterprise in Bashkortostan, in the production of which recycled food packaging will be used.
