Why do SDGs Matter for Oil & Gas?
While hydrocarbon industries may be an easy target for sustainability activists, it’s important to note that Oil & Gas holds significant potential to contribute positively to the SDGs from a myriad of social, environmental and economic vantage points.
The below image maps out at a high-level how Oil & Gas can contribute to each of the seventeen SDGs.
Some routes through which Oil & Gas can contribute to sustainability initiatives follow:
- Creating jobs (both direct employment and indirect job creation by way of auxiliary businesses);
- Increasing energy access to communities, which enables social development and economic activities;
- Investing in R&D to enable new technologies;
- Managing operations in a way that revolve around environmental and human rights impacts.
There is a synergy between the latter two points in particular. For example, investing in digitalization tools serve to modernize the industry, reducing carbon emissions and increasing health and safety to the benefit of sector employees and the environment at large.
Overall, and despite a different popularized narrative, Oil & Gas holds the potential to foster both social and economic development through creating jobs and increasing energy access for under-developed communities.
Further, through the advancement and uptake of advanced technologies, like digitalization, Oil & Gas can champion a paperless future, reduce carbon footprint and keep workers safe.
If you want to know how to create social capital with digitalization and SDGs, check out the original blog.
This article first appeared on MODS Energy Industry Blog https://blog.mods.solutions/how-digitalization-helps-oil-gas-contribute-to-the-sdg
Want to know more about digital transformation? Go check out our Digital transformation — everything you need to know.
