This paper describes a multiyear program in an oilfield services company that has been incorporating sustainability into internal business processes and improving environmental performance through the application of continuous improvement (CI) techniques.
The description of the global program is illustrated with examples that exhibit substantial performance improvements in energy, water, and waste. In each year throughout the life of the program, several facilities were given specific, quantified objectives to implement a CI project that would deliver enhanced environmental quality and efficiency. The projects use an incremental, data-driven process called define, measure, analyze, improve, and control (DMAIC). Projects are reported and reviewed through a centralized repository, and supervisory management implements a standard validation process designed to ensure consistency and accuracy in the quantification of improvements.
The control phase of the DMAIC process facilitates the sustainability of each project, beyond the calendar year in which it is launched, as models for preserving short- and long-term improvements are required. Since the start of the program in 2010, more than 280 projects have been completed in more than 25 sites in 13 countries. Environmental impact improvements have included reductions of 383,66 MW-hr of electricity and 1024,66 kL of water and 2,615 tonnes of waste eliminated, reused, or recycled across an average of 25 sites participating each year.
The program results have been shared in the company’s sustainability reporting and used to support submissions to external sustainability benchmarking and disclosure indexes. The results have been used also to engage employees and to share innovations and environmental best practices at the facility level. The initiative has stimulated forward-thinking management decisions on sustainability within the organization. Each of these aspects is discussed in the paper.
The program demonstrates that the quality-management-based concept of systematic elimination of waste can be successfully applied to environmental management in a diverse, multisite global organization. Process checkpoints ensure that the project remains on track and provide data that can be used to measure continuous improvement actions toward sustainability.
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