Preserving life and the environment  [ Return towards  Sustainable Development  ]

Within our teams the safety of processes and installations continues to be reinforced within the group, in particular through the deployment of an integrated industrial management system (IMS). To continue improving safety performance bringing down the number of accidents and eliminating dangerous situations and behavior which could cause accidents in 2008, Air Liquide is focusing on developing a reinforced safety culture across all group entities.

Making IMS* part of daily life in the company: following a long period of regular reductions, the rate of lost-time accidents has been decreasing more slowly in recent years (2.1 accidents per million man-hours worked in 2007 compared to 2.3 in 2006). Analysis shows that most accidents are not due to technical causes: the deployment of IMS*, completed in 2006, has largely contributed to reinforcing the safety of processes and installations.

*IMS (Industrial Management System): Air Liquide’s industrial policy dealing with safety, reliability, preservation of the environment, and risk management.

Respecting the environment in all its production activities and reducing carbon dioxide emissions: the Group’s air separation units do not directly emit carbon dioxide (CO2). However, they are heavy electricity consumers and so are indirectly responsible for CO2 discharges. For this reason, Air Liquide has made a commitment to reduce these units’ electricity use by 400 GW/h between 2004 and 2009, corresponding to the annual domestic consumption of a city of 180,000 residents.

Moreover, Air Liquide has invested in the cogeneration process, which enables steam and electricity to be produced simultaneously. The advantage: a cogeneration unit produces CO2 emissions 15 to 30% lower than those of separate units. The 16 units of this type which the Group owns worldwide consequently reduced the release of CO2 by 573,000 tonnes in 2007.

The Group is also concerned about CO2 emissions linked to transporting its industrial and medical gases, and is constantly working to improve its delivery routes. To limit truck transportation, 84% of all the air gases and hydrogen the Group produced in 2007 were either delivered to customers via pipeline or generated by small units built on the customers’ sites. Such on-site production means 59 million fewer kilometers of truck transport, which corresponds to 63,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions avoided.

Imagining innovative ecological solutions for customers: Air Liquide proposes technologies, processes and products to its customers that enable them to combine productivity and respect for the environment in their industrial processes. Chemicals, steelmaking, electronics, paper mills… many different sectors are concerned. For Air Liquide, solutions which aim to preserve the environment and life represent 33% of revenue and 60% of the Research and Development budget.

For the last several years, Air Liquide has used its hydrogen know-how to search for clean energy solutions based on the fuel cell, an operation that fits in perfectly with its sustainable development approach. It takes part in many projects on transportation in Europe and North America, hydrogen storage, vehicle fuel supply (service stations) and the fuel cell. With its subsidiary Axane, specialized in the fuel cell, Air Liquide is the leader of the European Hychain-Minitrans project, which is testing, in real-life situations in four regions in Europe, 158 vehicles that run on hydrogen.


See also: Challenge bibendum

Chapter sustainable development

Indicators and objectives Sustainable Development