Health, Safety, Environment

With the following exceptions, the HSE figures encompass all the national and international production, distribution and administrative sites operated by the Linde Group:

Linde Gas: we focused here on the production plants with the proportionately highest use of resources, i.e. the HyCo facilities (steam reformers and partial oxidation plants; see Glossary) and air separation plants. Material Handling: for organizational reasons, no data was included for the Brazilian production plant (STILL) and the distribution and administrative sites operated by STILL and OM Pimespo in this initial review.

The highest share of electricity is required by our air separation plants. The consumption figures cited for the raw materials natural gas and Naphtha include the quantities needed for hydrogen production using steam reformers and partial oxidation plants. The water usage includes both public utility supplies and our own sources. The majority of water required by Linde is used during production processes. None of the waste that is reused or disposed of contains construction waste, excavated soil, scrap metal or other metallic waste. The figures for scrap metal have been listed separately. Direct CO2 emissions result primarily from the production of hydrogen and from energy generating processes within the Linde Group. Natural gas, Naphtha, heating oil, butane und propane were the main energy sources used. Indirect CO2 emissions refer to carbon dioxide generated during the production of energy supplied by third parties (electricity, district heating) and not released directly at Linde sites. The figures were computed using the recognized country-specific CO2 conversion factors provided by the United Nations Conference On Trade And Development (UNCTAD)₂.