News

Urenco publishes its 2021 Sustainability Report online

08 August 2022

Today, Urenco publishes its annual Sustainability Report for the year ending 31 December 2021.

Urenco is committed to contributing to a sustainable net zero future. We operate safely and form partnerships with our supply chain to deliver measurable positive impact for our people, our communities and help the world to decarbonise.
The highlights are:

• We enriched enough uranium to generate an estimated 780,000 GWh of electricity from nuclear power, avoiding approximately 320 million tonnes of carbon emissions.
• Proud to achieve reductions of 16% for scope 1 (direct) and 9% for scope 2 (indirect) carbon emissions compared with 2020. 
• We reduced our water withdrawal by 12% from 2020.
• Approximately two million patient treatments were performed using medical radioisotopes produced from our enriched stable isotopes products.
• We refreshed our sustainability strategy to focus on three building blocks: environmental impact, social impact, and governance and ethics. 
• Our global ‘Richie’ education programme reached an estimated 57,000 schoolchildren.
• We approved 9 new social investment partnerships.
• We hosted our second conference for our Inclusion and diversity (I&D) champions, showcasing speeches from two I&D experts in leading external organisations in both the UK and the US. 
• Strong safety performance ‒ Total Recordable Injury Rate of 0.27 resulting in six total recordable injuries.
• We made our first Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) submission scoring a creditable B-, the second highest of four levels.
• We again met 100% of our customer deliveries.

In 2021, Urenco became the first nuclear organisation to sign The Climate Pledge and one of the initial 100 organisations committing to achieve net zero emissions by 2040. We are now translating this commitment into a clear roadmap with ambitious science based targets covering our scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. 
As well as reading our report, you can visit our refreshed sustainability web pages to see the actions we are taking to reach our sustainability goals and view our reports and statements that we publish to ensure transparency.

Boris Schucht, Chief Executive Officer, comments:

“At Urenco we firmly believe that nuclear power, alongside renewables has a key role in the clean energy transition by generating reliable, low carbon electricity and hydrogen or hydrogen based synthetic fuels.

“From the valuable contribution we make to the low carbon economy, to the socially responsible way we conduct our business, sustainability shapes our customer partnerships and guides our decision-making at all levels. Sustainability is a corporate priority. It is our intention to make a fast and strong contribution to achieving net zero by 2040 within Urenco’s operations. 

“In 2022, under our sustainability strategy we are further implementing our plans to realise nuclear energy’s contribution to a greener and more sustainable future. This includes continuing to provide our customers with the excellent, safe service we are known for, supporting them to fuel both existing reactors and nuclear new builds with current and advanced technologies, and investing in our centrifuge and associated technology. 

“We also continue to explain nuclear’s contribution to a net zero world and continue to deliver on our own action plan to provide our customers with a fully CO2 free nuclear fuel. What is needed to realise nuclear’s full potential in this regard, is for investment to be unlocked. We look forward to constructive conversations and strong industry and government collaboration to achieve these essential ambitions.”

 

Read the 2021 Sustainability Report here.