EO Blog

In late May of this year, two members of the EO team traveled to Puyo, Ecuador and led a stakeholder engagement workshop with members of the indigenous people’s organization Comuna San Jacinto del Pindo de Pastaza. Senior Advisor, Rene Ortiz and Director of Socio-environmental Affairs, Pablo Yépez represented EO at the workshop, which also included technical staff for the indigenous organization along with the group’s president, Gina Tibi.

At the end of May, EO’s Director of Operations Sarah Coulter attended the 2015 Summit of the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council (SPLC) in Seattle, Washington. Each year the summit provides a networking opportunity for professionals working in the sustainability industry to share ideas and learn best practices from other attendees.

Last month, two EO team members, VP of Standards Soledad Mills and Director of Markets Sarah Coulter, spoke at separate sessions at the ISEAL Alliance annual conference in Berlin. Mills and Coulter shared experiences and insights from EO’s six years of experience as the only independent standards and certification system for the oil and gas industry with representatives of other systems from across industries and around the world.

In early May, Dr. Susan Brantley, a Professor of Geosciences and Director of the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute at Pennsylvania State University, sparked new interest (and reignited controversy) in the debate over the impacts of shale gas development, often referred to as fracking.

We have extended the deadline to comment on the draft EO100 for Shale Oil and Gas, the first independent standards for responsible fracking, to May 31st!

Anyone who is interested now has until May 31st to browse and/or download the draft standards, and submit comments to [email protected].

Last week, EO Director of Communications and Director of Shale Programs Josh Garrett attended a meeting of sustainability and social impact professionals on best social and environmental practices for oil and gas and mining companies. The event, sponsored by Ethical Corporation, was called Responsible Extractives Summit – North America.

Following its official request to Peruvian government agencies in December of last year, the indigenous group AIDESEP called a press conference to publicly advocate for the creation of an oil development policy based on the provisions of the EO100 Standard.

In December 2014, EO received a letter of complaint from the U.S.-based labor organization AFL CIO. Submission of the complaint, which alleged improper labor practices by certified site operator Pacific Rubiales Energy (PRE), initiated an internal review, performed in accordance with EO Procedures for Certification System Comments, Complaints, and Appeals.

The growing trend of heightened consciousness of the social and sustainability implications of purchasing decisions along companies’ entire supply chains provides numerous opportunities for EO to engage with consumer stakeholders. EO supports this trend by raising awareness and encouraging ethical purchasing decisions by energy consumers (people and companies) of all types and sizes.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) issued new regulations for oil and gas operations that use hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on federal and Indian lands. The announcement came just four days after EO published its draft EO100 for Shale Oil and Gas standards, a supplement to the foundationalEO100 Standard, for operations that use fracking.