Fertilizers contain a guaranteed level of nutrients in a form that is readily available for plant use. Fertilizer application can be timed to meet crop uptake and reduce losses to the environment.
Environment, Health, Safety & Security
Stewarding the Environment
The environment is important to us all and we must all work together to care for it. As a corporate citizen, Agrium Advanced Technologies must take a larger role in stewarding the environment. We take this role very seriously and have instituted key performance measures into our operations to monitor air and water health indicators. Understanding our impact has helped us reduce the effect of our business in these areas and even helped us bring about positive change.
Our Commitment
We work to minimize negative impacts created through the mining, processing and transportation of our products. We also work with customers to ensure our products contribute the maximum value to their crops and reduce the opportunity they will be lost to the environment.
To make meaningful change in an environmental context we must measure our impact, determine and revise targets, integrate policies and programs into our culture and then measure again. Agrium Advanced Technologies focuses its primary efforts in three areas: air, water and land.
Air
Directly and indirectly, Agrium Advanced Technologies generates greenhouse gases through the production, distribution and use of its products. These emissions may be subject to climate change policy and regulations being developed in North America. However, these policies are developing in a unique way within various state, provincial and federal jurisdictions.
Water
There are three ways we affect water: water use in operations, water discharge and water that may be affected by nutrient use in fields. To address stakeholder concerns that nutrients are entering the environment from the use of our products on a farm, Agrium Advanced Technologies is working with industry associations, researchers, NGOs and government to establish a nutrient stewardship system. This includes the establishment of best management practices and long-term measures to monitor performance and continuously improve.
Reduced Impact in Agriculture:
With Agrium's support, Agrium Advanced Technologies has worked with stakeholders to develop an industry-wide nutrient stewardship system that will reduce the opportunity for product to be lost to the environment by applying the right nitrogen products at the right rate, time and place through the implementation of best management practices.
In addition to our involvement in developing best management practices, we have also developed a series of controlled release nitrogen products. As the product name indicates, these products have a smart coating that releases nutrients to match the needs of the plant. While controlled release technology is not new to turf and horticulture businesses, ESN (Environmentally Smart Nitrogen) is the first controlled release technology developed for large acre crops such as corn and wheat.
Land
There are a few ways that Agrium Advanced Technologies (supported by Agrium) can affect land: remediating sites that we acquire or no longer need, events that impact the environment like spills, the proper disposal of hazardous waste and how nutrients affect the land after the product leaves our hands. We're also working to replenishing the soil for quality and organic matter.
Managing Environment, Health, Safety & Security Risks
Agrium Advanced Technologies has established a set of responsibilities and standards for managing environment, health, safety and security (EHS&S) risks. This is known commonly as our EMS or Environment, Health & Safety Management System.
This system has been developed to provide Agrium Advanced Technologies facilities guidance and standards for managing environment, health, safety and security matters. The format of the AAT EMS meets the requirements of the Corporate EMS and offers detailed guidance on the development of site specific standards at each facility.
