SIBUR's environmental projects received a special award of an international contest

12 july 2021

SIBUR received a special award from the International Contest "Environmental Culture. Peace and Harmony 2021". The contest’s Organizing Committee praised the company for its holistic and creative approach to advancing environmental responsibility and raising environmental awareness among Tyumen Oblast’s residents.

SIBUR has been busy implementing a whole range of environmental initiatives in the region as part of its Formula for Good Deeds social investment program, including the Land of the Lapwing, a bird conservation project, and Tobolsk Forest, a reforestation project. Both projects involve systemic engagement of the residents of Tyumen Oblast with a strong emphasis on environmental education of school students.

We are extremely pleased that the company’s innovative approaches to environmental education that it has been advancing in our region have been recognized by such an authoritative contest. Ever since the launch of the Land of the Lapwing and Tobolsk Forest projects, we have been placing a premium on actively involving Tyumen Oblast’s residents in these efforts and we intend to stick to this strategy going forward, Elena Belskaya, the projects’ supervisor and Head of ZapSibNeftekhim's Government Relations Department, pointed out.

Both projects got under way in 2019. As part of the Tobolsk Forest initiative, over a period of two years the company's employees, volunteers and the city’s school students planted more than 7,000 pine seedlings on a square area of more than 2 hectares. In addition, a grant contest for school forestry teams has been organized jointly with Tyumen Oblast’s Forestry Department to support research in the areas of forest studies, forest protection, conservation and restoration. One of last year's grant-winning projects was dedicated to building a hiking trail leading to a relic 280-year-old pine tree.

The Tobolsk Forest project is an important element of the comprehensive work SIBUR has been doing to green Tobolsk and its suburbs, Maxim Rogov, ZapSibNeftekhim's General Director, emphasized. Since 2014, the year of ZapSibNeftekhim’s project launch, the company has already planted over 2.5 million trees on an area of nearly 110 hectares larger than the size of the entire territory occupied by the plant itself. This coming fall, working together with Tobolsk’s Administration, we will be launching a project called "1,000 Trees". We also intend to start efforts to green our Red Square and to plant greenery on the grounds of our production site.

For the third year, ZapSibNeftekhim has been the site of ornithological studies that are being carried out within the framework of the Land of the Lapwing project focusing on studying the species composition of birds inhabiting the production site’s grounds and on helping the plant’s employees protect the birds’ nests from external threats. The results of the most recent count suggest that the overall list of species that can be found on the site’s grounds has expanded since studies had been launched, an indication of a generally favorable environmental situation near and around the plant’s petrochemical production facilities. The researchers have even managed to spot a golden eagle, a bird species that is included in the Red Book of the Russian Federation, on the grounds of ZapSibNeftekhim.

As part of the project’s educational component, Tobolsk became home to a series of thematic discussions with ornithologists and a birding competition involving 213 participants.

SIBUR’s portfolio of environmental education projects that it has been implementing in Tobolsk is quite impressive, and is expanding every year. Initiatives such as the Land of the Lapwing, SIBUR’s Ecotrail, the art project “SIBUR’s Good Neighbors” give everyone an opportunity to learn more about the diversity of Tyumen Oblast’s flora and fauna and ensure that a large-scale manufacturing site and wild nature can co-exist in harmony, Igor Klimov, member of SIBUR’s Management Board, noted. The special award we got from a prestigious international contest is a worthy testament to and a sign of an independent external appreciation of our efforts to protect the environment, minimize our own environmental impact, and create an enabling atmosphere for public environmental projects. Taking care of the environment and the legacy we will pass on to future generations is as important to us as dealing with industrial safety issues or solving production challenges. This is one of pillars of our company's Sustainable Development Strategy.

Background information:

The Formula for Good Deeds, SIBUR's social investment program, was launched on February 1, 2016, in all key cities where the company operates. It is being implemented across six focus areas covering all essential social sector domains: urban development, education and science, sports and healthy living, environmental protection, culture, and volunteering. The Land of the Lapwings bird conservation project at ZapSibNeftekhim and the Tobolsk Forest reforestation project have been under implementation in Tyumen Oblast since 2019 as part of the Environmental Protection focus area of the Formula for Good Deeds program. Further information about the program is available on the program’s website at www.formula-hd.ru.

The International "Environmental Culture. Peace and Harmony" Contest has been run by the V.I. Vernadsky Non-Governmental Environmental Foundation since 2012. The contest’s goal is to advance and foster projects that have practical implications for nurturing and developing an environmental culture and are aimed at helping achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The contest seeks to involve government agencies, businesses, educational institutions, non-profit organizations and individuals in addressing environmental issues and developing an environmental culture. Further information about the contest is available at: https://vernadsky.ru/