Biodiversity is fundamental to life on Earth. This network of living organisms is the bedrock of life, as they purify the water we drink, pollinate our plants, clean the air we breathe, regulate the climate, make the soil fertile, as well as provide medicines and many basic materials for industry. Biodiversity is essential to human well-being as it ensures the functioning of the economy and society. More than half of the world’s GDP is dependent on nature.
Threats to biodiversity
The main direct factors leading to a decline in biodiversity are:
- loss of natural habitats and ecosystems,
- introduction of invasive species into environments,
- environmental pollution,
- overexploitation of natural resources (including especially intensive agriculture and forestry),
- climate change.
How can we promote biodiversity?
The main direct drivers of biodiversity loss are:
- Change landscaping of green areas from lawns to flower meadows.
- Reduce mowing.
- Create scrublands, i.e. plant shrubs.
- Establish micro-forests / pocket forests, i.e. small clusters with a high density of trees and shrubs (where growth is 2.5 times faster than in a natural ecosystem).
- Use native species for planting, avoid invasive alien species (IAS).
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Introduce small-scale retention solutions, e.g.:
- Rain Gardens
- Retention Basins
- Permeable Surfaces
- Green Roofs and Walls
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Make shelters for small animals e.g.:
- Stone Mounds and Brushwood Houses for Reptiles and Amphibians
- Cellars and Boxes for Insects
- Bat Boxes
- Hedgehog Houses
- Create biocentric (natural) gardens and parks
- Increase wilderness areas
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Protect birds by:
- Proper Marking of Glass Surfaces
- Reducing "Light Pollution"
Legal protection of biodiversity
The European Union, including Poland, has a robust legislative framework to protect vulnerable terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, including marine ecosystems, e.g. the Birds and Habitats Directives, the Natura 2000 network of protected areas, the Water Framework Directive and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. An additional instrument to help implement these policies is the European Green Deal.
The most important piece of EU legislation pointing the way forward is the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, while the national legislation – the Nature Conservation Act of 16 April 2004. Many companies are also implementing their own standards, such as the Biodiversity Policy adopted by Orlen Capital Group in 2023.
The protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems is also one of the environmental objectives identified in the EU Taxonomy. Reporting activities that are taxonomy-compliant, or environmentally sustainable, is to serve as a condition for accessing external funding, both private and public; it is intended to promote innovative companies that want to grow while reducing their negative environmental impact.
Biodiversity
All ORLEN Termika S.A. plants are located in the immediate vicinity of environmentally protected areas, with the Żerań CHP Plant and the Siekierki CHP Plant operating in exceptional circumstances, as the Vistula River, near which they are located and from whose resources they draw, is the Natura 2000 Area “Middle Vistula Valley”. This is why we are particularly cautious and we care for the environment in our operations. We are continually working on solutions to reduce our impact on the environment, hence the latest investments in less carbon-intensive energy sources such as gas and biomass. The Żerań CHP Plant already utilizes natural gas, while the Siekierki CHP Plant is working to connect a gas pipeline to their facilities to reduce their coal consumption as well. The investments in the Kawęczyn Heating Plant, which will be put into operation over the next few years, will allow for the withdrawal from the use of coal. The Pruszków CHP Plant is also undergoing a transformation.
Examples of biodiversity measures undertaken by ORLEN Termika S.A.
- We are involved in the active protection of endangered species – since 2016, we have nesting boxes for peregrine falcons put on the chimneys of our plants (Żerań CHP Plant, Kawęczyn Heating Plant, Siekierki CHP Plant) and we monitor their breeding. In 2022, five young falcons left our nests.
- We have installed numerous nesting boxes for swifts on the wall of the Żerań CHP Plant office building.
- We plant trees, not only as part of replacement plantings (during construction processes), but we also participate in planting actions as part of employee volunteering in neighboring forest districts. We planted more than 4,000 trees in 2022.
- We also protect aquatic organisms in the vicinity of our facilities. In 2020, we installed a StopFish barrier at the Żerań CHP Plant to scare fish and prevent them from entering the plant’s cooling water system through pumps.
- Since 2020, we are also committed to protecting the honey bee. We have set up an apiary at the Siekierki CHP Plant, which is now home to around half a million bees.
- We remove all types of land contamination, including historical contamination, by implementing remediation measures on our sites.
- We are working very hard to regenerate damaged ecosystems. We have rehabilitated two combustion waste landfills.