Our company does not produce or transport products. We provide conditioned storage services and, as such, we are responsible for our terminals and the products we store. Our methods have always focused on preventing spills and emissions and complying with operating permit requirements and legislation. We are working to standardize our approach globally so that we may better understand any environmental and operational impact we cause. In this way, we will have the insight to manage the environmental impact including the carbon footprint of our activities. It is for this reason that we have committed ourselves to creating a thorough waste management system, reducing our energy consumption and emissions into the soil, air and surface water, and limiting our collection and consumption of water — all of which combines to form our sustainable approach to operations.

An important measure for our process safety as well as environmental care is the number of spills that occur at our tank terminals. After an initial increase caused by higher management attention to report all significant spills the number has increased slightly (2008:103 ; 2007: 97). This is a good result when taken into account the major expansions and additional operations that have been included in our worldwide network in 2008. Further attention will be focused on implementing the Vopak minimum standards around the world and to pay even more attention to preventive measures.

We further enlarge the reporting within our sustainability policy by publicizing data on energy usage (both from indirect and direct sources) as well as CO2 emissions. We do not generate CO2 from our operating processes, but the energy we use in our operations does generate CO2. Energy is mainly used for pumping, heating or cooling of products stored in our tanks. We can report a decrease in both the energy consumption per unit of storage capacity as well as a decrease in the calculated CO2 emission per unit of storage capacity. This decrease is the result of a greater focus in the last years on energy reduction. This successful program will be extended in the next years.