Publications

The challenges in carrying out sustainable development are numerous and complex. It becomes even more of a challenge in the oil and gas industry where many processes are not sustainable over the long term. Nevertheless, the call to action is real. Increasing sources of influence, i.e., internal and external stakeholders from all levels � international, national, regional, and local, expect and often require organizations to contribute to sustainable development efforts. On the positive side numerous organizations want to do their part to contribute to sustainable development. However, from a site perspective, how can an organization contribute to the sustainable development challenge? What can they do and what; in it for them? From a macro- perspective, the United Nations� 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) exist as humanity; framework for action. At times these can be directly linked to action at the micro- or site level. However, measuring sustainable development performance can prove difficult for a site-based organization without system-thinking or adapting to a management system approach. The 9th edition of the International Sustainability Rating System (ISRS) assists site-based organizations in identifying, evaluating, and determining meaningful activities to contribute to sustainable development. This is accomplished through the identification of eleven aspects (OH, OS, PS, Env., Q, Sec., AI, Ene, M, K, and SR*) all of which can be used to measure sustainable development activities implemented by the site organization. This in turn indicates a site; level of sustainable performance and can be benchmarked against others. Against the 17 SDGs, a site organization can meaningfully contribute to the global framework while implementing ISRS9 requirements, especially when taking a materiality-based approach, mapping ISRS aspects to the SDGs, and then plotting the activities the organization wishes to contribute to. Defining what sustainable development activities to engage in, measuring sustainable development activities and their outcomes, and confirming a site organization; sustainable development performance through an ISRS9 management systems assessment provides an indicator and benchmark for management that their operations are sound, safe, and sustainable.