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Check out some of our favourite headlines from 2021
Plastic Recycling: Plastic Energy, Freepoint Eco-Systems and TotalEnergies partner on Advanced Recycling Project in the U.S.
Plastic Energy Ltd., Freepoint Eco-Systems LLC and TotalEnergies have announced a strategic partnership in the U.S. Under this agreement, Plastic Energy and Freepoint Eco-Systems plan to build an advanced recycling plant in Texas, which will transform end-of-life plastic waste into a recycled feedstock called TACOIL using Plastic Energy’s patented technology. TotalEnergies will convert this raw material into virgin-quality polymers, which can be used for food-grade packaging.
The project will process and convert yearly 33,000 tons of post-consumer end-of-life plastic waste that would otherwise be destined for landfill or incineration. The plant is expected to become operational by mid-2024 with TACOIL to be used for the manufacturing of high-quality polymers in TotalEnergies’ Texas-based production units, enabling the creation of items such as flexible and rigid food packaging containers.
Plastic Energy, Freepoint Eco-Systems and TotalEnergies are all firmly committed to developing plastics recycling to address the issue of plastic waste and to build a more circular and sustainable economy in the U.S. and globally. In line with this commitment, TotalEnergies and Plastic Energy announced in September 2020 a joint venture to build a plastic waste conversion facility with a capacity of 15,000 tons per annum at the TotalEnergies Grandpuits zero-crude platform in France. The project is expected to be operational in early 2023.
Total and Microsoft partner to drive digital innovation and Net Zero goals
Total and Microsoft today announced that they have agreed to collaborate as strategic partners to further digital transformation and support progress toward net-zero emissions.
The dynamic development of Microsoft and Total in their respective areas of expertise and their rich histories of innovation brings many concrete opportunities for collaboration over a multi-year timeframe:
- Total’s global presence and market knowledge can support Microsoft’s sustainability objectives, including its 2025 target for renewable energy and contribute to the energy efficiency and carbon footprint reduction efforts of its datacenters.
- Total will further leverage the cloud platforms of Microsoft. Total has decided to accelerate its IT transformation and leverage the power of Azure for digital transformation projects and for Total Digital Factory. Total will broaden and enrich its existing modern workplace environment, based on Microsoft Office 365 which will provide collaboration and productivity solutions for its employees and its operations. Total will also explore the value of the Power Platform to automate business processes, reduce cost and allow easier access to data for its citizen developers.
- Explore and co-innovate on areas of collaboration around sustainability, further digital transformation and AI solutions accelerating the transition to a net-zero economy, for example, the deployment of low-carbon and carbon-removal technologies.
As part of its sustainability objectives, Microsoft aims to eliminate its dependency on diesel fuel by 2030. Total, through its affiliate Saft, will support Microsoft in its development of a long-term roadmap to diesel-free operations, initially by helping Microsoft assess the suitability of various Total technologies as part of Microsoft’s portfolio of onsite backup energy assets, including:
- Diesel genset displacement: Microsoft sees large-scale batteries as a key component on its path to eliminate dependency on diesel fuel, which is used in generators to provide backup power for datacenters. Microsoft and Total established a partnership to assess the long-term feasibility of deploying large batteries as backup power for critical infrastructure. This assessment is being carried out with the help of Saft, a global leader in backup power batteries.
- Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) Batteries play a critical role within Microsoft’s datacenter infrastructure. Saft batteries will provide additional values to help Microsoft improve its specifications to its UPS suppliers and ultimately meet its sustainability goal. Those values are energy savings, higher safety, lower Cobalt, and a self-powered monitoring system to ensure optimized system availability.
Microsoft has made a public commitment to use 100% renewable energy by 2025. Total’s ambition is to reach 35 GW of renewable electrical capacity in 2025 and then nearly 100 GW in 2030. Total will assist Microsoft to secure renewable energy through power purchase agreements (PPAs). A first PPA of 47 MW has been agreed for Microsoft’s Spanish operations.
Microsoft and Total are also working on emerging technologies critical to a net-zero pathway and digital solutions that can accelerate their adoption.
Total Begins Producing Sustainable Aviation Fuel in France
Total has begun producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at its La Mède biorefinery in southern France and its Oudalle facility near Le Havre. The biojet fuel, made from used cooking oil, will be delivered to French airports starting in April 2021.
Total will also be able to produce SAF as from 2024 at its zero-crude Grandpuits platform, southeast of Paris.
All of these sustainable aviation fuels will be made from animal fat, used cooking oil and other waste and residue sourced from the circular economy. Total will not use vegetable oils as feedstock.
In this way, Total will be in a position to respond from its production sites in France to new French legislation that calls for aircraft to use at least 1% biojet fuel by 2022, 2% by 2025 and 5% by 2030.
The development of SAF is one of the strategic paths being pursued by Total to meet the challenge of carbon neutrality, as biojet fuels help reduce CO2 emissions from air transportation.
ESG & UN Sustainable Development Goals: Total Recognized as a Top Leader by BloombergNEF
On April 13, BloombergNEF published its first study on the alignment of corporate strategies with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With a score of 97/100, Total ranked third worldwide in the survey, among the four business sectors studied (Oil and Gas, Utilities, Metals & Mining, Consumer Goods), and first in its sector.
The study, entitled “UN Sustainable Development Goals for Companies: Primer” assesses companies on the basis of an analysis of 10 categories of criteria, in terms of integration of the SDGs into their strategy, identification of their priority impacts and improvement targets. The assessment also takes into account the transparency of the associated reporting.
Since 2016, Total made a commitment to contribute to the SDGs’ achievement and uses them as a benchmark for measuring and prioritizing its impacts. The Group also played a pioneering role in SDG-related reporting by contributing to the work of the platform created in 2017 by the UN Global Compact and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
“Total is resolutely engaged in a transformation that addresses the challenges of the sustainable development agenda: fighting global warming, delivering tangible solutions and actively promoting a just transition. Total wants to be a benchmark for corporate commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals, and I am delighted that our teams’ engagement has been recognized with this first ranking,” said Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Total.
The Bloomberg study recognizes the alignment of Total’s business strategy with clearly stated climate objectives (SDG 13), its transformation into a broad energy company with tangible low-carbon energy projects (SDG 7), and the use of its economic and social clout, notably within its supply chain (SDG 8). The study also highlights Total’s work on transparent disclosure, with the publication of detailed SDG reporting.
Total believes that transparency is essential for building relationships of trust with its stakeholders and for putting the Group on a continuous improvement path. Total reports on its performance on the basis of the various commonly used ESG disclosure frameworks. In addition to the SDGs, Total refers to the standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), the Core metrics proposed by the World Economic Forum, and the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) for its climate reporting.
Hydrogen Mobility: Total Supports the Development of the First Hydrogen Taxi Operator in Paris
Total announces the acquisition of a stake in Hysetco, a French company dedicated to the development of hydrogen mobility in cities. Hysetco owns the largest fleet of hydrogen taxis in the world, launched in 2015 and operated in the Île-de-France region under the Hype brand, as well as hydrogen stations.
The Hype project aims to demonstrate for the first time on a large scale the viability of zero-emission hydrogen vehicles for urban mobility.
With the acquisition of a 20% stake, Total joins Hysetco’s historical shareholders: STEP (Société du Taxi Electrique Parisien), Air Liquide, Toyota and Kouros.
Hysetco currently owns around 700 taxis in Paris, with still a majority of diesel vehicles that will transition gradually to become exclusively comprised of hydrogen vehicles by 2024. The hydrogen taxis are fueled by a dedicated network of hydrogen stations operated by Hysetco. This network is expected to expand in the coming years to support the growth of hydrogen vehicle fleet. Total will make its network of service-stations available to Hysetco to contribute to the growth of this network of hydrogen stations.
TotalEnergies and Uber Join Forces to Accelerate the Transition Towards Electric Urban Mobility
TotalEnergies and Uber are partnering today to accelerate the transition of Uber’s drivers towards electric mobility, by providing support for vehicle conversion and easier access to charge points. This partnership targets France at first, with the possibility to extend it to other European countries.
Uber has set an objective to reach by 2025 50% of electric vehicles available on its French platform, which currently has 30,000 registered drivers, as part of its wider commitments to be fully electric across Europe and North America by 2030. Meanwhile, TotalEnergies is already strongly involved in charging services and infrastructures in major European cities and throughout France, particularly in Paris.
TotalEnergies will therefore issue to drivers, currently using the Uber app and equipped with electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles, a TotalEnergies card giving them access to charge points located within its service-stations and throughout the EV charging networks it operates. They will have access to 20,000 charge points in France by end-2021, and more than 75,000 by 2025. In addition, TotalEnergies and Uber will collaborate, based on drivers’ habits and journeys, to determine the optimal locations for future hubs and charging sites.
These drivers will also be offered the opportunity to join “Club”, TotalEnergies loyalty program, and benefit from the free Club assistance for a full year, which includes a wide range of services including the roadside assistance for their electric or plug-in hybrid vehicle.
Finally, drivers will have privileged access to an in-home offer with free administrative support, designed to encourage the installation of an electric charge point at home, whether they live in a condominium or in individual housing.
TotalEnergies to introduce a 100% renewable fuel at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and at the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC)
TotalEnergies is developing a 100% renewable fuel for motorsport competition, to be introduced from next season at the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), including the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2022, and at the European Le Mans Series (ELMS).
Competition is a key driver for innovation: the extreme constraints met in endurance racing –race duration and high mileage- are constantly pushing for the development of higher-performance fuels, which however must also address nowadays the new challenges posed by the energy and environmental transition.
This 100% renewable fuel to be offered by TotalEnergies will be produced on bioethanol basis*, made from wine residues from the French agricultural industry, and from ETBE produced at TotalEnergies’ Feyzin refinery near Lyon (France) from feedstock also sourced from by the circular economy. This fuel should allow an immediate reduction of at least 65% of the racing cars’ CO2 emissions.
Named “Excellium Racing 100”, this fuel opens a new chapter in the Endurance racing and motorsport energy transition for all the actors involved. It will have all the required qualities for a racing fuel and will meet automakers’ requirements, as well as the latest FIA criteria for sustainable fuels, by leveraging the expertise of TotalEnergies Additives and Fuels Solutions. This team has notably designed “Excellium Endurance”, the fuel used this year for the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2021 which already includes 10% of advanced bioethanol.
“Our ambition is to be a major player in the energy transition and to get to net zero carbon emissions by 2050, together with society,” declared Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies. “TotalEnergies is supporting its customers and partners in their evolutions, by thus applying its strategy to motorsport: sustainable liquid fuels, electricity, batteries, hybridization, hydrogen… Advanced biofuels have an undeniable part to play in helping the transport sector to reduce its CO2 emissions immediately. This 100% renewable fuel, that will be made available in motor racing as soon as 2022, is a perfect illustration. As we are becoming a broad energy company, the racing track is more than ever an open-air laboratory for TotalEnergies.”
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