Carolina Ortega, vice president of sustainability, Milestone Environmental Services, talks about the integration of energy, environment and carbon. The conversation begins with separating Sustainability and ESG (Environmental Social Governance).
“Think about when you go to the doctor, and the doctor takes your cholesterol level, and they take your blood pressure, and they take your different levels of vitamin D, and they just do a blood test, and they come up with all these metrics, all these numbers on your health, right?” Ortega said. “Those metrics, I kind of make a parallel with ESG.”
Using oil and gas as a backdrop, Carolina explains how sustainability strategies are becoming more accepted everyday.
“When you're able to tell a story about how a company is welcomed by local communities when it sets up its operations, that is sustainability,” Ortega said. “It's long-term value creation. It's long-term risk management. And that's the big difference.”
Putting the science in layman terms Ortega, explains how the waste that comes out of fields that produce oil and gas is called slurry.
“So the waste that comes out from oil and gas fields is brought over to our facilities and it's managed in an environmentally responsible way,” Ortega said. “So we take that thick, heavy mud that is the waste that comes out of oil fields. It's called slurry.”
She added that Milestone Environmental Services “takes out the heavy solids from it, and then we re-inject it into deep injection wells.”
“So essentially, think of it as oil and gas production in reverse,” Ortega said. “Instead of taking the oil out of the ground, we put it back in.”
Ortega oversees all aspects of ESG data collection and reporting, including both mandatory and voluntary disclosures. She is responsible for the development and communication of the company’s proven environmental and sustainability strategy and will champion Milestone’s sustainability programs to all stakeholders, including C-suite officers, industry leaders, and boards of directors.
A subject matter expert in sustainability and environmental impact, Ortega has more than 20 years of experience developing corporate-wide sustainability strategies in a variety of industries. Her expertise also includes climate change, social and environmental risk management, human rights impact assessments, stakeholder engagement planning, Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) investor and rater engagement, sustainability reporting, social and environmental performance management systems, and risk assessment for new-country entries. In addition to 15 years of experience in the oil and gas sector, she has worked in the consumer products and pharmaceutical industries.
Ortega earned her bachelor’s degree in economics and art history from Smith College. She received a Graduate Certificate from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland, and a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University.
Ortega was born and raised in Mexico City, and now lives in Houston with her two daughters.
ESG and Sustainability are not the Same Thing or Strategy