In the latest episode of the Energy in Transition podcast, Schlumberger Global Director Sustainability Lees Rodionov and Council CEO Leslie Beyer analyzed the future of energy and the need for the industry to make energy transition, sustainability and ESG considerations central in its strategic thinking.
For Rodionov and Schlumberger, the focus is on leveraging climate action to create opportunity. Taking a comprehensive view enables businesses to better understand potential impacts as they initiate projects.
“We talk about the triple bottom line — people, planet and profit,” Rodionov said. “Sustainability is the sweet spot between those three. So, you have environmental priorities, social priorities, and financial priorities. You’re still going to make decisions that prioritize one or the other, but you know what the tradeoffs are, and you can manage risk around that.”
Using the triple bottom line framework lets decision-makers consider options on a continuum and drill down on important considerations.
“It’s thinking about if I make this environmental decision, how does it impact my financial priorities?” Rodionov said. “How does it affect stakeholders? How will it impact the community or my employees? It’s a way of thinking about the tradeoffs.”
Rodionov said ESG is a way for businesses to understand and handle risks.
“In managing our enterprise risk, I recategorized them through an ESG lens,” Rodionov said. “And three-quarters to 80% of our risks fall into ESG. Think about it this way, and it starts to become just a way to manage my business risk.”
Rodionov said Schlumberger brings sustainability to its operations by using the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which has been adopted by 200 countries to help advance environmental, social and economic agendas.
“I looked at our customer base, and 75% of our top 20 customers use the SDG language when they talk about their sustainability goals,” Rodionov said. “If you’re looking for a place to start, the SDG roadmap — which includes guidance for specific industries — can show how we, as an industry, impact each of those SDGs.”
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