Corporate responsibility: Health, safety and the environment (HS&E)

Rising to the challenge.
Environmentally Friendly Engine

Environmentally Friendly Engine (EFE)

EFE is planned to deliver technologies that will lead to reduced fuel consumption, emissions and noise.

Technology research

Technology research

We are constantly seeking to develop new advanced technologies to improve environmental performance.

Performance against targets

The Group believes that good HS&E performance is synonymous with good business performance. Our stated vision is to be recognised widely for the excellence of our HS&E performance. To achieve that vision we continue to implement robust processes in order to deliver against a number of key objectives by the end of 2009. These are detailed in our report 'Responsible Operations', on the Group's website. This report was published in April 2007.

In summary, our 2007-2009 objectives are to:

  • Protect health

    -10% Target: Reduce the incident rate of occupational diseases and other work-related ill health by ten per cent by the end of 2009

  • Prevent injury

    -15% Target: Achieve a 15 per cent reduction in the lost-time injury rate (over one day) by the end of 2009

  • Reduce environmental impact

    -10% Target 1: Achieve a ten per cent reduction in energy consumed (normalised by financial revenues) by the end of 2009

    -10% Target 2: Achieve a ten per cent reduction in solid waste (normalised by financial revenues) by the end of 2009

    58% Target 3: Achieve a 58 per cent recycle rate of solid waste by the end of 2009

We will report on progress against these objectives in April 2008 on the Group's website at www.rolls-royce.com

To ensure that we continue to make rapid progress, we have updated our HS&E training for all employees and developed targeted training plans across our businesses. These are being implemented currently, with risk management training completed during 2007 as part of this programme.

All the Group's businesses have third party certification to the environmental management system standard ISO 14001, and our comprehensive Corporate HS&E audit programme assesses the implementation of the HS&E management system across all businesses on a rolling audit basis. This year, audits took place in the UK and US, across our civil aerospace, energy, fuel cells, marine services and submarines businesses, and the combustions and casings, component services and turbine systems supply chain units. Audit reviews were also undertaken at four sites on the management and effective control of major hazards as part of an ongoing programme.

We operate three sites in the UK which together manufacture, test and support nuclear reactor cores for Royal Navy submarines. The Company Nuclear Propulsion Assurance Committee monitors the performance of these sites regularly to ensure that the highest standards of health and safety are maintained and processes are robust and fit for purpose.

Our annual Company HS&E awards recognise outstanding initiatives and improvements worldwide. This year's winners were the Civil Aerospace Customer Delivery Centre for state-of-the-art equipment to allow colleagues to work safely on an engine at any height. Six safety performance certificates were awarded to sites achieving a full year with no lost-time injury incidents. In addition, nine sites each achieved over one million man hours lost-time injury free.

The Group's contribution to developing best practice through third party collaboration continues to grow. We are taking a leading industry role in REACH, the latest EU chemicals regulation, and have appointed a REACH executive dedicated to this programme during 2008.

We are working closely with other companies, trade bodies, sectors and regulators in preparing for the implementation of REACH. Efforts have been focused on raising awareness within our manufacturing operations and supply chains, in order that appropriate arrangements for compliance and business continuity, and the targeting of any future 'substances of very high concern', are introduced well ahead of deadlines. Within the aviation sector, we are helping to develop international standards for the declaration of substances in 'articles' supplied to us to facilitate future REACH compliance and, where required, substitution programmes.

We continue to take part in the UK's voluntary carbon dioxide emissions trading scheme and the Chicago Climate Exchange. Programmes we have implemented to reduce carbon dioxide emissions include an initiative at Inchinnan, Scotland, where a reduction in furnace temperatures will reduce annual emissions by around 1,200 tonnes of carbon dioxide and will achieve cost savings of £140,000 a year.

Environment: technology and climate change

Rolls-Royce believes that technology, applied on an industrial scale, lies at the heart of society's response to climate change.

The scale of this challenge should not be underestimated. The development and application of such technologies is, in itself, a formidable task, and must be accompanied by a step change in consumer behaviour. We are committed to applying our science and engineering skills to help overcome the challenges.

The Group is in a unique position to address these difficult issues, due to its long history of optimising the environmental performance of its products. For example, since the 1950s our engineering expertise has helped to reduce aircraft noise by 75 per cent and fuel burn by 70 per cent on a passenger per kilometre basis. We are therefore well placed to contribute to the search for technological solutions to climate change.

In 2007, Rolls-Royce was announced as the leading member of the Environmentally Friendly Engine programme, a UK government and industry initiative to develop technologies which will halve the amount of aviation fuel used per passenger. The Group was also awarded a contract by the US Air Force Research Laboratory to develop a technology demonstrator for high-thrust, reduced fuel consumption military aerospace platforms. We also continue to play a leading role in aiming to achieve, by 2020, the environmental goals set by the Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe (ACARE). The ACARE targets, which are broadly in line with the US research goals set by NASA, are to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 50 per cent per passenger kilometre, noise by 50 per cent and NOx by 80 per cent, all from a 2000 baseline.

The drive to improve our products' environmental performance spans all of our businesses. For example, in the marine sector our latest Bergen K gas engine, which is certified to power the world's first major car and passenger ferries running on liquefied natural gas, produces up to 90 per cent less NOx and 20 per cent less carbon dioxide than traditional diesel engines.

The Group is developing megawatt-scale, solid oxide fuel cell systems that will deliver significant reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, relative to existing fossil fuel power generation. A 250 kilowatt unit is planned to be tested in 2008. Other product developments include exploring the feasibility of renewable power sources, such as tidal stream and offshore wind.

The Group published 'Powering a better world', a report on the environmental performance of our products and our Group, in April 2007. This is available on the Group's website.

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