Our Quality Improvement Programme is an integral part of Astron Energy‘s commitment to producing high-quality fuels. Through mutual respect and teamwork, we create an environment that fosters continual improvement. 

The programme is designed to ensure that we produce transportation fuels that not only meet performance expectations and are delivered on time but are always manufactured safely and in an environmentally sound way. 

At our refinery, all our employees take responsibility for and work together towards achieving our overall objective of a safe working environment.

We take the health and safety of all our employees very seriously and are looking at ways to ensure their well-being, implementing programmes to maintain and create ever-improving safety records.

Our refinery has a full-time, on-site industrial fire department with a fire chief and fully trained and certified firefighters and Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) Their training ensures that we are equipped to deal with all types of emergencies. 

We also have operations based Shift Emergency Response Team (SERT) members, who are trained to work closely with the fire department to further manage emergency situations.

A key focus of our fire department is prevention-related activity and ensuring that firefighting systems are maintained in an optimal state. 

Our fire department also regularly trains and performs drills with local fire departments to evaluate and improve firefighting procedures specific to potential refinery emergencies. 

We are working to improve our efforts to protect the environment in which we live and work, through a number of programmes and policies. Our refinery is located between residential communities in the Cape Town area, so we take extra care to make sure we take the necessary steps to protect our employees, their families and our neighbouring communities.

Petroleum refining is one of the most heavily regulated industries in the world. We comply with the required national and local laws that protect human health and the environment, and regularly engage with oversight agencies to make sure we stay abreast of global regulations.

We are committed to sustainability across all areas of our business, in particular as it relates to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG). We take our responsibility to heart when it comes to reducing our carbon footprint and seek to transition to a low carbon economy and a better future for generations to come.

Renewable and efficient energy is one of the key focus areas in our approach to sustainability. We have implemented an energy efficiency program to reduce the energy requirements at our refinery by between 10-20% by 2023.

Water is essential to our operations and we are committed to the responsible use and conservation of water. 80% of the water needed for our refinery process comes from recycled water from a local treatment plant. We have installed and operate an onsite reverse osmosis unit that purifies the water to the level required for use in the refinery. We also have a programme in place to reduce the amount of water released to the ocean after effluent treatment. At present we are able to recycle between 60-70% of the water destined for the ocean, using technology imported from abroad.

Another important initiative is waste management. We have been segregating general waste at source for a decade, thereby diverting potential recyclable material away from sensitive and overused landfill sites. This has resulted in social and economic benefits by providing raw material to third party recycling facilities.