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By Valerie Stewart, Vice President Business Development, Scovan Inc.

There has never been a more important time to build trust and connect your organization, your people and your clients to the world. ESG practices identify your values and provide a framework to execute and communicate your highest priorities to your stakeholders. Those companies that are out performing their peers integrate their enterprise value and ESG performance. Strong ESG performance leads to improved client retention, cost of capital and overall market reputation. The oil and gas industry has seen increasing pressures to develop meaningful ESG strategies to develop sustainable energy practices while delivering long term value for their shareholders. 

At Scovan, Environmental, Social, Governance has always been a priority. Over the last decade we have been actively working to develop technologies, implement practices to reduce environmental footprint of our designs, and give back to the communities we serve. We foster innovation through our Fresh Friday sessions, where we actively develop new ideas to improve processes, explore new technologies, and evaluate new markets. Our unwavering commitment to this cause has led to the creation of Scovan’s inaugural ESG strategy document in 2022, which serves as a blueprint to further advance and elevate our ESG efforts.

Challenging the business of Energy, Scovan is driving innovation through the development of a unique set of products to address industry challenges. Our current suite of products includes:

HipVap: An Indirect Fired Steam Generator that generates steam direct from produced water. The technology reduces water consumption, disposal rates, greenhouse gas emissions, land use, and costs by eliminating conventional SAGD water treatment processes. 

PadX: A modular SAGD well pad design that minimizes carbon footprint and maximizes efficiency through an intelligent, templated, and reliable design and lean manufacturing strategy. PadX offers the greatest economic value for the entire lifecycle of the pad. 

ORSIL: A technology that manages SAGD facility waste streams on-site. 

Environmental 

We pride ourselves on implementing technology, efficiency, and environmentally conscious practices into every project we undertake. Through our design philosophy of modularization, reduction of steel, smaller transport loads for modules and lean manufacturing approach, we are reducing our energy consumption and carbon footprint.  

At Scovan we believe in investing in new technology to help facilitate the energy transition. We are developing a Center or Excellence at our Ponoka fabrication facility to build and trial new technology in real world applications. Examples include a pilot for Solar Steam that is producing renewable heat for industrial clients so that they can reduce carbon emissions while lowering costs.

Social 

Scovan places a high priority on the physical and mental health of its employees, implementing systems that promote open dialogue and continuous improvement to enhance health and safety practices. These efforts have contributed to developing a corporate practice to monitor early indicators for safety and well-being and moving closer to a safe and healthy future. In addition, we actively engage in various community initiatives, such as supporting local charities and nonprofits and hosting and sponsoring events. We believe in the value of a diverse and inclusive workforce, and provide equal opportunity for advancement for all. Through collaborative efforts, Scovan aims to contribute to the communities where we work, empowering individuals and fostering sustainable growth. 

Examples include:

• Commitment to inclusive hiring through partnership with Maskwacis Bi-Annual Career Fair

• Supporting Women centered and Indigenous focused non-profit organizations such as Verna J. Kirkness Education Foundation, Blackfoot Tech Council, and Canada Bridges through our annual International Women’s Day forum.

• Our leadership team consists of 40% female leaders, while 27% of our greater management team are women. Additionally, our company is made up of 32% visible minorities.

Governance 

To promote a healthy organizational culture and achieve operational excellence, accountability is essential. Leadership by example fosters ownership, teamwork, and engagement, all of which are critical to our success. Our Right People, Right Seats Assessment ensures that individuals align with our Core Values and are in suitable roles. 

We update annually and live by our Professional Practice Management Plan (PPMP) to maintain quality of engineering deliverables and our engineering obligations.

Our Human Resources Employee Handbook is the basis of our culture, who we are, our processes and the importance of accountability. This is updated annually. 

Originally published in Scovan’s IGNITE Vol. 6