2015 Corporate Sustainability Report

2015 Corporate Sustainability Report

GRI

GRI

Responsible Operations Matter

2015 Achievements

Our “Do It Right” culture permeates our business and drives excellence. Doing it right means integrating safety into all we do and being responsible stewards of the environment. CF is an industry leader in safety and environmental performance with a long and ongoing commitment to invest in people, processes and technologies to continuously improve. As an example, our strong safety culture has produced five consecutive years of improvements in its recordable incident rate. In addition, 12 of our facilities are designated as Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) STAR sites. These STAR sites demonstrate exemplary achievement in occupational safety and health management. Though manufacturing nitrogen fertilizer uses a lot of energy, our nitrogen complexes are among the most energy efficient and cleanest in the world. In contrast to coal-supplied plants in other parts of the world, our plants utilize an abundant supply of North American natural gas as their feedstock.

State-of-the-Art Energy & Emissions Technologies

The operational scale of our world-class nitrogen complexes combined with ongoing investments in more efficient technologies has enabled us to lower our energy and emissions footprint over time. For example, our facility in Medicine Hat, Alberta, has increased energy efficiency by almost 30 percent over the past four decades.

Most recently, our expansion projects in North America have provided significant opportunities to install state-of-the-art control technologies in new plants and upgrade those in several existing plants. In Donaldsonville, Louisiana, we have installed selective catalytic reduction (SCR) control technology on several ammonia plant reformers. With the SCR technology in place, we are able to reduce the nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions of a new ammonia plant and two older ones by over 80 percent. Other state-of-the-art installations in Donaldsonville include:

  • A regenerative thermal oxidizer (RTO) on both a new and existing ammonia plant to control volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions.
  • New and enhanced scrubbing systems in two older urea plants to reduce particulate matter emissions.
  • New and enhanced scrubbing systems in two older urea plants to reduce particulate matter emissions.
  • The EnviNOx® process on a new nitric acid plant to reduce nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions by 94 percent.

Medicine Hat Ammonia Plant Efficiency

(MMBtu/ton) 1976-2015

Source: Internal CF Data

Several of these installations are the first of their kind in the fertilizer industry. The new ammonia plant is expected to be approximately 10 percent more efficient than the industry benchmark.

We estimate that similar technologies installed as part of our expansion in Port Neal, Iowa, have improved energy efficiencies there by as much as 10 percent.

Our U.K. operations, where we operate two nitrogen complexes, have a track record of successfully monitoring and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In 2012, for example, we became the first fertilizer company to carbon footprint all its products with the Carbon Trust to the highly rigorous Publicly Available Standard 2050 (PAS 2050). Working with the U.K. government and the Carbon Trust, our two sites in the U.K. have reduced CO2 emissions by more than 1.1 million tonnes per year over the last five years.

CO2e Emissions

Per Product Tonne
2011-2015

Source: Internal CF Data; Corporate Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report for CF Industries 2015; Ruby Canyon

Natural Gas Consumption

2011-2015
(Million MMBtus/Nutrient Tonne)

Source: Internal CF Data

Safety Performance

2011-2015
 

Rates = # of injuries per 100 full-time employees (200,000 hrs.)
D.A.R.T. = Days Away/Restricted or Transferred = any recordable injury resulting in lost or restricted work days
Lost Time = an injury at work that leads to unfitness for work and absence from the next scheduled work period

Source: Internal CF Data

Safety

We achieved record safety performance in 2015 with our lowest-ever total injurycount and recordable rate. Safety excellence is the focus of an enhanced environmental, health and safety (EHS) policy and strategy that we launched in 2015. “Do It Right” in terms of safety excellence requires employee and contractor training supported by the appropriate tools, practices and procedures, and a strong safety culture and habits. Everyone who works in our production and distribution facilities, including contract employees, receives regular safety, health and process operation training. This includes annual EHS training and testing that focuses on daily operations, as well as hazardous waste operations and emergency response (HAZWOPER) and hazardous materials (HAZMAT). We also work closely with emergency responders and other local officials to develop detailed emergency response plans that extend beyond our physical plants.

CF is a strong supporter of ResponsibleAg, an industry-led initiative to help fertilizer storage and handling facilities achieve and maintain federal regulatory compliance. Learn more: https://www.responsibleag.org/

95%

CF overall product stewardship excellence

The International Fertilizer Association’s (IFA) initiative focuses on:

  • Safety in the workplace, our communities and the environment
  • Security from product misuse
  • Sustainability – maximizing efficiency and minimizing environmental impact

In 2015, we participated in the National Safety Council Safety Culture Survey — the Safety Barometer — to measure the effectiveness of our safety programs and provide a baseline for improvement. The survey was implemented at all CF locations. Results indicate a high level of employee engagement in our safety programs, with the company ranking in the 92nd percentile among more than 1,000 multinational companies.

Safe Distribution of Product

Our safety focus extends beyond our physical plant locations to the distribution, storage and handling of our products. Railroads recognize shippers who successfully go for a calendar year without experiencing a non-accident release (NAR) on theirline. In 2015, CF received such recognition from four different Class I railroads.

In addition, we support and have taken a leadership role in ResponsibleAg, an independent, nonprofit organization that supports fertilizer retailers’ compliance with federal safety and security storage and handling regulations. We are also certified by the International Fertilizer Association’s Protect & Sustain Initiative, which promotes responsible business management practices across a product’s lifespan. CF achieved an overall Product Steward EXCELLENCE score of 95 percent.

PROFILES IN

SAFETY

In 2015, we introduced the Stephen R. Wilson Excellence in Safety Award program to recognize innovative ideas that enhance safety practices and strengthen our safety culture. Nominated projects are judged based on their safety impact, transferability to other sites and potential for long-term implementation and expansion.

Winner: Ammonia Analysis Made Safer

Port Neal Nitrogen Complex lab team (from L to R): Renee Towne, Hannah Neusch, Mikeal Moffatt, Corissa Church and Samantha (Sam) Loutsch.

Recognizing the potential hazards and inefficiency of the traditional ammonia testing process, the lab team at our Port Neal Nitrogen Complex began looking for a way to make its process safer and greener. Port Neal’s lab supervisor, Renee Towne, observed environmental, health and safety benefits from a new diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) analysis methodology and asked, “Why can’t we adapt this process for ammonia testing?” She pitched the idea to CF Technical Services and Port Neal’s DEF filter vendor, OSS. The group collaborated to develop a game-changing new ammonia testing method that is safer and more environmentally sound and sustainable.

Port Neal’s revolutionary new method for ammonia analysis, which is Environmental Protection Agency Green Chemistry Principal adherent, employs a small, reusable and recyclable filter with a specialized membrane technology that separates oil from a fixed volume of ammonia. The filter is safely, rapidly and efficiently analyzed using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy, a technique that uses infrared spectrum, rather than hazardous chemicals. This new process is as accurate as the old method and effectively reduces or eliminates safety and health risks for our lab technicians by using smaller testing samples and reducing testing time to a fraction of the time previously required, from eight hours to 20 minutes. These improvements minimize lab technician exposure and reduce hands-on time by 90 percent. Additionally, the new lab procedure improves the facility’s overall environmental footprint by eliminating the need to store, use and dispose of hazardous waste. This new lab method will update lab procedures worldwide, benefiting CF and the industry.

Wilson Award Finalists

All of the ideas submitted for the 2016 Stephen R. Wilson Excellence in Safety Award underscore our employees’ unwavering commitment to “Do It Right.” We received many outstanding submissions that demonstrate the breadth of safety innovation across our company. These four finalists represent the best of the best:

  • An enhanced Lock-Tag-Try program to increase worker communication and accountability, and ensure proper equipment identification in Donaldsonville, Louisiana.
  • A vehicle safety program to identify issues and implement innovations to maintain worker and pedestrian awareness, increase communication and maintain engagement in safety processes in Ince, United Kingdom.
  • A fall protection program to enhance employees’ ability to perform job duties safely at heights in Verdigris, Oklahoma.
  • A storytelling program to help new hires establish a personal connection with previous incidents in Yazoo City, Mississippi.