Forginga Path to Sustainability

Meridith Wilson, VP of Sustainability at Buckeye Partners, has a proven accelerated promotion history. She is a natural leader who excels at establishing solid professional relationships with executive management, peers, employees, and regulators. Her expertise translates corporate vision into actionable plans, ensuring alignment with overall corporate strategy.Her invaluable insights into best practices, emerging trends, and market realities assist Buckeye in developing, refining, and implementing its vision for sustainability, making her an integral part of the organization’s success in this field.

Can you provide an overview of your role in your company’s sustainability goals and initiatives?

As a Buckeye’s Strategy and Investment team member, I work with executive leadership and each functional department to evaluate climate-related risks and opportunities across the business. Buckeye is the premier provider of infrastructure and logistics for the world’s energy needs. We are committed to strengthening our energy infrastructure and logistics provider position, growing our share of future energy markets, and decarbonizing the economy. To achieve these goals, each of us at Buckeye has a role to play, and as the VP of Sustainability, I figure out how to best maximize our collective talents toward achieving our sustainability goals and initiatives as part of our business strategy to decarbonize the economy. Since 2019, I have led our efforts to inventory and quantify our carbon footprint and create appropriate standards for tracking and reviewing other ESG-related metrics. I lead Buckeye’s annual sustainability reporting and ad hoc reporting to key stakeholders. Internally, I focus on educating program managers and other leaders on our greenhouse gas emission sources for general understanding, identifying, and prioritizing carbon reduction opportunities based on capital investment considerations as part of our investment review processas well as integrating sustainability considerations into business and operational processes to align initiatives in supporting our path to net zero and other strategic plans.

What are the challenges you have encountered in implementing sustainability initiatives while adopting emerging technology and how have you addressed them?

I believe my challenges are not unique in this regard. We have recently refreshed our business strategy, and as a result, we are undergoing organizational change management. This entails thoroughly examining all our business and operational processes to maximize opportunities most cost-effectively. Adapting to these organizational changes is an ongoing challenge we are actively addressing. Implementing change is not easy; however, at Buckeye, sustainability goals and values are not new, such as our safety values and customer services commitments, so once the dialog gets started for new sustainability considerations, such as carbon management, I find my colleagues are engaged and willing to implement sustainability initiatives further.

Technologies required for achieving absolute reductions while continuing to meet society’s transportation fuel and energy needs are not fully developed yet. While we are committed to supporting the energy transition and providing alternative options to the market, we also understand the persistent demand for fossil fuels.It is important to acknowledge that the existing technologies do not currently allow us to achieve zero carbon emissions in fossil fuel processes.

" Collaboration and process transparency have been crucial for accurately quantifying and identifying reduction opportunities as part of our carbon management plans. We want to be efficient and effective in our data collection, so we spend more time analyzing the data rather than collecting the data "

However, there are several technologies that we can leverage to automate aspects of data collection for an improved understanding of equipment function and performance that we are then able to evaluate for carbon reduction through operational changes or equipment changes to increase vapor recovery, taking advantage of those opportunities today while we are closely monitoring and eagerly anticipating the advancement of various technologies, such as carbon capture opportunities, which could greatly benefit our efforts. It is important to acknowledge that not all technologies are readily available in the mainstream market to deploy across our assets cost-effectively and efficiently. Many of these technologies are still in the pilot phase, and we are actively evaluating pilot programs to test and assess their viability. This challenge is not exclusive to Buckeye; it is common for midstream companies.

Indeed, overcoming these challenges requires time and effort.While these challenges are not unique to Buckeye, they are critical considerations for companies like ours that have committed to achieving net zero emissions.

What is the role of innovation and technology in your company’s sustainability efforts?

While technology is evolving rapidly, we are eager to explore potential partnerships and conduct pilot projects to determine if they offer viable solutions. As a midstream company operating in the liquid refined products sector, we primarily handle finished products rather than processing hydrocarbons. This distinction is important because methane emissions, commonly associated with hydrocarbon processing or natural gas transportation, are not the same for us as a liquid fuels transportation and storage space. However, we do generate emissions when using equipment to transport products.Currently, the energy sources for our kit are mainly natural gas or other hydrocarbon-based fuels, with electricity being an alternative option in some cases.

That being the case, we are somewhat insulated from certain innovation opportunities due to the nature of operations in product transport. Through BAES Infrastructure, we recognize the importance of involvement in early-stage alternative energy projects that enable global energy transition. By engaging in these projects, we aim to leverage and integrate innovative solutions as part of our operations and service options for our customers.These opportunities provide a platform for innovation, especially considering Buckeye’s primary focus on logistics and movement within the midstream sector.

While our core focus is on efficient logistics and transportation for our customers, we actively explore avenues for advancing maintenance activities and operational processes. We are open to partnerships to leverage innovation in these areas.It is important to note that there may be differences in the technologies and initiatives pursued by refining, midstream, and upstream companies, given their distinct roles and operations within the energy industry.

What would be your piece of advice for your fellow peers to be upbeat about their sustainability goals?

I would recommend fostering open communication and transparency to take advantage of operational and business processes to accurately quantify and reduce carbon footprint. Collaboration across disciplines is also crucial, especially at Buckeye; being a highly collaborative organization benefits us in solving problems faster. Another important thing is to stay informed and connected through networking with peers or other industries to understand innovations in their sector which can provide valuable insights applicable to your operations.This holistic approach is the key to building robust carbon reduction pathways.