Valero Energy Corp.

Valero manages nearly 700,000 acres of biodiverse California Conservation Plan land, while its GHG emissions result largely from its vast refining system. Water is a key resource for its refining operations, which use it for cooling, processing, heating, and treating wastewater. Because the majority of its water consumption occurs at refineries, Valero's water program focuses on cooling water efficiency, wastewater reuse, water risk assessment, and contingency planning for refineries in water-stressed regions.

Valero considers water risk in its operational and strategic planning and leverages the WRI Aqueduct to evaluate its facilities' water risk exposure. The company identified three of its 15 refineries—in Ardmore, Texas; San Francisco Bay; and Wilmington, Calif.—as being located in areas with high baseline water stress, and it is deploying wastewater reuse, alternative sourcing, and water-right acquisition strategies at these facilities.

Valero has a number of closed-cycle water operations, including recycling treated wastewater for agricultural use at the Three Rivers refinery; operating with zero process-water discharge by reusing stormwater and process water at the Welcome ethanol plant; recycling another brine stream at the McKee refinery with a Closed Circuit Reverse Osmosis system; and installing high-efficiency cooling towers that optimize water recirculation for refinery processes. The company is also helping develop infrastructure to treat municipal wastewater at the Wilmington facility and has supported regional water-supply planning around its Corpus Christi refineries. These initiatives suggest Valero is working to reduce its reliance on potable water, but the company has not yet provided reported savings for these efforts.

SASB EM-RM-140a.1 measures and discloses total freshwater withdrawal, the percentage of recycled water used, and the portion of total freshwater that comes from regions of high or extremely high baseline water stress.