Sustainability in Action: Responsible Energy Development

Being a responsible energy producer is a core focus for ARC. We take a comprehensive approach to environmental stewardship – incorporating sustainability measures in the full lifecycle of our projects – from design and operations to decommissioning and reclamation. We are pleased to share how our teams are taking action to ensure responsible resource development, operational excellence, and continuous improvement across our company.

A world-class resource

Canada produces some of the most ethical, affordable, and low-emissions natural gas in the world. Of all the development opportunities available, ARC made a deliberate shift to focus on the Montney formation within British Columbia (BC) and Alberta. This prolific deposit offers multi-layer development opportunities that are highly efficient, allow for lower surface disturbance, and have a lower overall relative carbon footprint, allowing us to produce some of the most affordable, lowest emissions energy available.

We are committed to safely and efficiently developing our portfolio of top-tier assets to produce the energy the world needs, while demonstrating what best-in-class energy development looks like through progressive thinking and proven performance.

Responsible development

When it comes to project development, we strive to go above and beyond to deliver industry-leading environmental performance. Our approach to environmental stewardship prioritizes innovation and the application of clean technologies that help to lower emissions, reduce freshwater use, minimize land disturbance, and ensure effective reclamation and remediation of our assets.

Years before we begin construction on a new project, we proactively engage with local landowners and Indigenous communities near our operations to ensure we respect the land and protect biodiversity. We conduct environmental site assessments to carefully evaluate the natural conditions of the land and monitor local wildlife, plant species, and natural water crossings in our field and construct bridges, culverts, and wildlife corridors when necessary to maintain existing habitats.

Facility design

Each ARC facility is designed to minimize environmental impacts and integrate feedback from Indigenous communities and key stakeholders to maintain natural environments and protect culturally sensitive locations. Our approach to low emissions design focuses on incorporating process improvements and lessons learned to reduce the facility’s base-load power requirement and applying technologies and processes to generate power as efficiently as possible.

In northeast BC, we are leveraging the clean hydroelectricity available through the provincial grid by electrifying our facilities to eliminate the emissions associated with combustion processes. Today, all our BC facilities are electrified, allowing us to reduce our GHG emissions by approximately 420,000 tC0₂e/year – which is equivalent to removing 91,000 cars off the road.

Electrification of our NEBC facilities has reduced our GHG emissions by ~420,000 tC02e/year

A best-in-class facility

ARC’s 185 MMcf/d Dawson Gas Plant reduced emissions by more than 70% when it was electrified in 2023.

Operational excellence

Safe and efficient operations are at the heart of how ARC does business. Through the pursuit of continuous improvement, our teams are committed to identifying new ways to prioritize safety, reduce costs, mitigate risks, and protect the environment.

The application of new technologies such as artificial intelligence has allowed us to enhance emissions monitoring, reduce fugitive emissions, and respond quickly when issues are detected. Process optimization across our operations has also enabled us to minimize overall flaring activity and reduce emissions.

Accelerating reclamation and reforestation

Our stewardship of the land continues long after our facilities have stopped production. Our goal is to return disturbed land to an original or equivalent land capacity once operations are complete. Through progressive reclamation, we partially reclaim disturbed areas that are no longer required for ongoing operations and work to progress closed sites from abandonment through to reclamation certificate in as few years as possible.

Once sites have been contoured and soils are replaced, we work with local landowners, Indigenous communities, and reforestation experts to replant trees, shrubs, and foliage and regrow vegetation to fully restore the land. In 2023, we planted more than 87,600 trees, bringing our total over the last five years to nearly 1 million.