Advancing environmental stewardship across our operations

Published: Apr 11, 2023

At Nutrien, we’re committed to developing innovative solutions that help protect the environment and reduce the environmental footprint of our operations.

Last year, the Environmental Operations team launched the Environmental Improvement Recognition Program (EIRP) to provide a common strategy for pursuing continuous improvement in environmental stewardship. The EIRP recognizes the best environmental practices, learnings and innovations across our Nitrogen, Phosphate and Transportation, Distribution and Logistics (TD&L) business units, as well as the employees who bring these ideas to life.

And the inaugural winner is…

We’re proud to announce the team at Nutrien’s Geismar Nitrogen facility as the first annual EIRP winner for their new nitric acid fume scrubber, which will improve environmental performance at the site.

The new scrubber is designed and adequately sized for maximum vent loads and railcar depressurization, and it was relocated to improve atmospheric dispersion modeling. The site’s railcar loading vent line was also relocated to reduce the potential for acid overflowing or an environmental release.

“We were able to minimize emissions well beyond what is required by the current permit by completing the scrubber project,” says Cecil Hopper, Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) Manager at Geismar. “We also reduced emissions of nitrogen oxides and nitric acid when we installed a control device with much greater capacity. We’re doing a lot of great work here at Geismar to reduce our environmental footprint, including the anticipated clean ammonia project, and it wouldn’t be possible without the commitment of our people.”

Culture of Care

The EIRP recognizes winners based on innovation, sustainability, promoting site efficiency, preventing environmental incidents and environmental footprint reduction.

“The program is designed to engage every employee in our strategy of footprint reduction,” says Aaron Chambers, Director, Environmental Operations. “It goes hand in hand with Nutrien’s Culture of Care principles of Lead, Collaborate, Trust and Challenge, as it provides opportunities for leadership, encourages teamwork and innovation, and recognizes sites that implement environmental projects, big or small.”