Sustainability at Shell

Sustainability at Shell means providing more and cleaner energy solutions in a responsible manner – in a way that balances short- and long-term interests, and that integrates economic, environmental and social considerations into decision-making.

Sustainability is integrated across our business on three levels.

Running a safe, efficient, responsible and profitable business

This is the foundation of our approach. We strive to produce and deliver energy responsibly – with respect for people, their safety and their environment. At the simplest level, this means doing no harm. We apply global standards to manage safety, the environment and how we engage with communities and we work to continuously improve our performance.

Helping to shape a more sustainable energy future

We provide products that people need and want to improve their lives – in their homes and businesses, and for transport. We aim to be responsible stewards for these products. We intend to adapt, innovate and play our part in the global shift to provide more and cleaner energy. This means transforming our product mix over time. We are taking action to provide lower-carbon products to help customers reduce their emissions. We aim to reduce the Net Carbon Footprint of the energy products we sell by around 50% by 2050, and 20% by 2035 compared to our 2016 levels, in step with society’s progress to align with the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Making a positive contribution to society

We aim to play a positive role in communities where we operate and in wider society. We contribute to the development of local economies by creating jobs, boosting skills, sourcing from local suppliers, as well as paying taxes and royalties. We support community projects that are based on the needs of local people. Our ambition is to provide a reliable electricity supply to 100 million people, primarily in Africa and Asia, by 2030.

Support for international agreements

We welcome the UN sustainable development goals, which seek to tackle the world’s economic, social and environmental challenges by 2030. We aim to play our part in helping governments and society to achieve them (see Sustainable development goals).

We aim to respect human rights as set out in the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Labour Organization’s core conventions. We are a founding member of the UN Global Compact and also support a number of external voluntary codes that promote responsible business practices. Read more about these codes at www.shell.com/sustainability/transparency/external-voluntary-codes.

We fully support the Paris Agreement’s goal to keep the rise in global average temperature this century to well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Find out more about our approach to sustainability at www.shell.com/sustainability/our-approach/sustainability-at-shell.