At Marathon Petroleum, we use proactive measures to protect diverse plant and animal species and to preserve their natural habitats in areas where we operate. Our Operational Excellence Management System (OEMS) provides the procedural framework to account for the potential effects of our activities on ecosystems and prepare necessary mitigation procedures. Our formal Commitment to Biodiversity outlines our approach and practices. Governed by executive leadership and adopted companywide, it emphasizes that we seek first to avoid, then minimize or offset, impacts to biodiversity. We are mindful that operating within communities is a privilege, and we collaborate with tribal and local stakeholders, business partners, and applicable state and federal regulatory agencies, including but not limited to the U.S. EPA, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Protecting Biodiversity throughout the Asset Life Cycle
Our policies and practices for siting, constructing, operating, maintaining and decommissioning assets are designed to protect the environmental quality of the habitats in and adjacent to our operational areas. These policies and practices are aligned with the International Finance Corporation’s Performance Standards on Environmental and Social Sustainability.1 Throughout the asset life cycle, we seek first to avoid ecologically sensitive areas. When land disturbance is unavoidable, we use a variety of recognized best management practices and techniques to mitigate our impacts during the asset’s life cycle. In situations where complete restoration presents challenges, we offset impacts to sensitive areas in several ways, including purchasing through the funding of approved conservation mitigation banks or using other mechanisms to provide ongoing protection to similar ecologically sensitive properties.
At each stage of the asset life cycle we:
- Identify and engage impacted stakeholders to solicit feedback, which becomes part of our decision-making process.
- Conduct location-specific risk assessments as appropriate, including desk and field studies, to evaluate nature dependencies and impact to biodiversity, natural resources and land use.
- Determine mitigation and enhancement initiatives within the project by working with stakeholders, local biologists and other environmental specialists.
- Implement biodiversity management and mitigation plans and assess potential outcomes to drive toward achievement of the intended objectives.
Read more in our most recent Sustainability Report.
1 International Finance Corporation’s Performance Standards on Environmental and Social Sustainability include: Performance Standard 1 − Assessment and Management of Environmental and Social Risks and Impacts; Performance Standard 3 − Resource Efficiency and Pollution Prevention; Performance Standard 4 − Community Health, Safety, and Security and Performance; Performance Standard 6 − Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Management of Living Natural Resources.
