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Geoinformatics_03-2009
article report on sustainability are provided here. the focus will be on large companies which routinely report on csd following the global standard for reporting (gri 3 guidelines), and are classified as sustainability leaders by djsi. these companies, selected to span a variety of industry sectors, include oil and gas (shell canada, eni), cement (lafarge), mining (rio tinto alcan), water (amec), hydropower (gdf suez), and forestry (upm, congolaise des bois, orsa group, york timber organisation). some of the gri 3 performance indicators to which the trials contribute, either qualitatively as an illustration of figure 2. development of the forest over the jari region in brazil. responsible management the image is a colour composite (red corresponds to hh coherence, green to or quantitatively with the hh intensity average, blue to hh intensity change) derived from an alos extraction of indicators palsar image fine beam dual (hh- and hv-polarization) acquired in from eo data. interferometric mode between 20th june and 5th august 2007. the following only a few examples taken classifications have been derived based on the coherence of signal between two acquisitions: vegetated areas (green tones), rapidly changing areas due to for from some of the trials perexample harvesting, forest clear cut or floods (blue tone), static areas of no formed with industry playchanges between the two acquisition dates such as bare soil conditions, rocks, ers in the framework of the poorly vegetated areas (orange tone); bare soil areas with strong humidity earth observation market changes (white tone). eo service providers for this trial are eyre consulting development (eomd) proltd, ambiental technical services, aon, and sarmap. courtesy of sarmap, gram of the european alos palsar data have been provided by jaxa eorc. space agency (esa) [www.esa.int/eomd] will be the focus of this paper will be on the implepresented here. the eomd program aims to mentation of corporate sustainable foster the use of eo data in business actividevelopment (csd) within business practices, ties by supporting demonstration projects, also sometimes referred to as corporate delivering eo-based geo-information services social responsibility (csr). following increastailored to users needs and assessing their ing pressure from stakeholders, a series of value in real test cases. corporate leaders in csd have adopted a new accounting from above business ethic based on the principles of sustainable development. this has resulted in the (1) monitoring oil sands development and creation of new types of non-financial auditfuture reclamation ing and reporting practices along the triple the alberta oil sands in canada is among the bottom line - economic, social, environmenlargest known oil reserve in the world, with tal - and the emergence of reporting guidean estimate of one-third of the world s known lines such as the world standard global reserves of conventional crude oil stored in reporting initiative (gri) reporting framethe form of bitumen. the site is also one of work. today, such reporting is also important the world s largest mining operations, with for ethical investment, as innovative financial two-million tonnes mined per day. indices, such as the dow jones sustainability unlike conventional crude oil, the extraction index (djsi), are now routinely used as a of bitumen in the oil sands region is conductbenchmark to offer guarantees of transparened via surface mining and steam-assisted cy and accountability of companies to their gravity drainage, which results in significant stakeholders. impact on the environment, in particular a few examples of how eo data can help corforests and rivers. the environmentallyporate csd leaders manage their impact and latest news? visit www.geoinformatics.com responsible development of the oil sands presents significant challenges for the companies operating in the region, and for provincial and federal regulatory authorities. the eo pilot project was performed in partnership with shell canada ltd. and albian sands energy inc., with a focus on the muskeg river mine and jackpine mine oil sands in northern alberta. eo radar data from the esa envisat satellite was used to identify the environmental footprint of industrial development as seen in figure 1. given the large scale of the exploitation, eo appeared as a good tool to provide objective information on the development and eventual reclamation of mine leases. it also created an opportunity to involve stakeholders, such as the local fort mckay first nation community, by providing them with an objective platform for cooperation and communication. indeed, by overlaying eo maps of change with fort mckay s traditional environmental knowledge , important places for the local communities (e.g. holy sites) can be seen in the context of the mine operations. this generated greater community involvement in the operations of shell canada and offered a transparent assessment of its environmental footprint. ashley nixon, sustainable development advisor at shell canada limited (canada), says: unbiased, timely satellite images help in building stakeholder trust because they clearly illustrate the activities taking place in our oil sands mine leases. they present clear, accessible visuals to stakeholders such as first nations people who live in the area, they provide objective information on development and eventual reclamation of our oil sands leases and help us to expand our annual reporting on environmental performance, including future reclamation areas. using 2006 as a baseline, we intend to repeat monitoring by satellite on a yearly basis, to record our mine development and our progressive reclamation of involved areas. (2) responsible management of forest tropical forests are among the richest and most diverse ecosystems on the planet, providing vital resources to millions of people. unfortunately this precious ecosystem is rapidly disappearing. one reason is the rapid growth of industrial logging for timber production. another pervasive problem, causing enormous damage to forests and poor local communities, is illegal logging, whereby timber is harvested, purchased and sold in violation of national regulations protecting the forest. this problem is now on a very large scale and is very difficult to halt due to the technical difficulty of identifying illegally april/may 2009 29
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