FGV Annual Report 2015

153 WHO WE ARE & WHAT WE DO OUR STRATEGIC INTENT & PERFORMANCE HOWWE ARE GOVERNED CREATING SUSTAINABLE VALUE OUR NUMBERS ADDITIONAL INFORMATION DETAILS OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING ADDRESSING OUR RISKS & OPPORTUNITIES Felda Global Ventures Holdings Berhad Annual Integrated Report 2015 Water Used Per Tonne of FFB Processed (Tonnes) 1.18 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 1.22 1.51 1.17 1.22 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 BOD Levels (PPM) 58 2013 2014 2015 47 63 80 60 40 20 0 FGV is at the forefront of renewable energy using palm waste materials. Our commitment in reducing GHG emissions continues through operational approaches such as methane capture, bio-composting and the cogeneration of electricity from methane released by palm oil mills effluents (POME). Although we have 19 biogas trapping plants in 2015, our monitoring in 12 of them managed to reduce 72,814* MT of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). Two of our biogas capturing plants i.e. Umas POM and Serting Hilir POM generates electricity from the captured biogas to supply electricity to domestic use. This reduces the need for fossil fuel that will contribute to global warming. While reducing GHG emissions, demand for biomass fuel is rising worldwide. We believe that the use of biomass as an energy source should be part of the climate change solution as long as it is developed in a truly sustainable way. Our maiden biofuel plant located in Semenchu produced 2729.77 MT of pellets in 2015 only. These pellets are produced from by-product of our palm oil mills which is the empty fruit bunch (EFB). These pellets are sold to third parties for power generation, replacing fossil fuels – a prime example of the Group’s focus on environmentally- friendly production processes. Water use and quality As water is important to all life forms, we are very much concerned about the potential impact of our operations on natural water ways, as much as our Stakeholders do. River is the main source of water supply to our mills. In 2015, our POMs consumed 1.22 tonnes of water per tonne of FFB processed. Although it is slightly higher from previous year, we believe this is due to the intensive maintenance of mills. The increase of water usage is also mainly due to high water requirement used in upgrading mills in 2015. Environmental The Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Journey In 2013, we initiated an exercise to evaluate the water quality of the major river systems in our operational areas in Peninsular Malaysia, mainly to evaluate the impact of our plantation operations on its quality based on Department of Environment’s Water Quality Index (WQI) parameters. For every river system, the water quality at the exit (of the plantation) is compared to its quality at entry (to the plantation) to determine impact from the plantation operations. In summary, we have identified 135 major river systems in our plantations and to date we have analysed 51, 41, and 65* river systems in 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively. Overall, our analysis indicated no significant deterioration in water quality of the river system passing through our operation. Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) is the amount of dissolved oxygen needed by biological organisms to break down organic material from mill effluents and it is considered to be an important aspect of water pollution. On top of meeting regulatory requirements, we monitor regularly our BOD level to ensure our water source are not impacted by the release of POME from our mills. Our average BOD In 2015, was slightly higher at 63 ppm as compared to 2014 (47 ppm). The higher BOD levels may be due to delay in desludging of effluents ponds. The delay resulted in shallower ponds that reduced the retention time, thus reducing the biological process of decomposing digested POME. However the value of 63 ppm is far lower than the DOE permissible level of 100 ppm in many of our mills. Note: * This data has been independently audited. Read the Independent Assurance Report on pages 361 to 363. Year MT Year PPM