To contribute to better environmental protection, NIS employees, members of the company’s Volunteer Club, in cooperation with the public utility company Zelenilo Pančevo, have planted 500 trees in the premises of the Pančevo Oil Refinery and its surroundings.
These maple and sycamore trees, about 3.5 metres high, are worth five million dinars, and the new tree alleys are now almost 2.5 kilometres long. In addition to making the part of Pančevo, where the refinery is located, more beautiful, these trees will have a beneficial effect on the quality of air in the town. Representatives of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the City of Pančevo and Zelenilo Pančevo also took part in the tree-planting campaign.
Ivana Hadži Stošić, State Secretary at the Ministry of Environmental Protection, talked, on the occasion, about the importance of such campaigns and added that, in this way, companies can participate in achieving one of the national priorities, and that is improving air quality. “By planting over 500 maple and sycamore trees, NIS has once again demonstrated social and environmental responsibility, as well as the fact that environmental protection is the company’s primary concern. As you know, this year the Ministry has launched three public competitions to support local governments in implementing projects aimed at improving air quality. Also, a contract was signed with the City of Pančevo stipulating an afforestation project. This year, together with NIS, we supported 29 projects in the field of environmental protection, under the auspices of the ‘Communities together!’ social responsibility programme,” said Ms Hadži Stošić.
Vadim Smirnov, Deputy CEO of NIS, reminded of the successful cooperation between the company, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the City of Pančevo, adding that NIS will continue to invest in environmental projects in the coming period.
“Together with our friends from the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the City of Pančevo, NIS organized this environmental campaign to convey a strong message – ecology is our main goal, environmental protection is our strategic commitment and our company will not give up on that,” Mr Smirnov pointed out.
Predrag Živković, a member of Pančevo’s City Council for Communal Affairs, talked about the importance of long-term cooperation on environmental and socially responsible projects with NIS.
“We are pleased to have been able to participate in the planting of more than 500 trees, for which NIS donated funds. This is not the first time that we, as a local government, participate in one of the campaigns launched by NIS. We also did it in the past, especially when it comes to environmental issues, landscaping and cleaning the river banks. We will continue to support any campaign that has a socially responsible character,” said Mr Živković.
NIS has been committed to the implementation of the green agenda for years, thus contributing to the improvement of environmental protection in our country. Through such campaigns, the company contributes to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals on stopping climate change and its consequences. With constant investments in the modernization of the Pančevo Oil Refinery and the launch of the Bottom of the Barrel project, NIS has further reduced emissions of pollutants into the air from its refineries. Since 2009, the company has spent almost 120 million euros on environmental projects in various business segments. Pančevo Oil Refinery is the first power facility in Serbia to obtain an integrated IPPC permit, which means that all production processes comply with the highest European and domestic environmental regulations.