Triple Bottom-line Impact

Each stage of the production cycle has a unique set of economic, environmental and social costs and benefits. The initial stage of the production cycle here is actually the extraction and shipping of LPG to the West African ports. Unfortunately, the entrepreneur is not sure where the gas he is buying originally comes from. Regardless of where it comes from, the extraction and shipment would have an overall negative environmental impact from CO2 emissions related to these activities. Also, the extraction may involve additional environmental disruption, though it is difficult to specify the overall environmental impact due to the lack of information. This stage also provided positive social impact through job creation both in the country extracting the gas and the shipping company.

Once the gas arrives at the port, then it would be sold to various LPG companies, including Sodigaz. This would create local employment. It also would require land for gas storage. Anywhere that there are large amounts of stored gas, there is risk of explosion and fire. These would cause negative social impacts. This analysis has had no direct interaction with the suppliers, thus it is unable to discuss the level of risk and the safety measures taken by the suppliers. Because the various LPG companies would be required to send cistern trucks to collect the gas, there would be a negative environmental impact from the CO2 emissions associated with the travel of trucks to the ports.

Once the gas is transferred into the Sodigaz trucks, it then must travel back to Bamako. This travel again would involve CO2 emissions. In addition, the roads in West Africa are not always well maintained and accidents are frequent. An accident involving LPG would most likely result in an explosion, which would have negative social and environmental impacts. The transportation of the gas does, however, create employment and result in import tax, which helps run government programs.

Upon arrival in Bamako, the gas is transferred into the storage containers. If the storage is full, it allows Sodigaz and end-users to have uninterrupted gas use for approximately 3 weeks in the case of a gas shortage. This means that all of the end-use benefits, discussed in detail below, would be able to continue. Shortages do happen and it is important to have an adequate storage. As demand grows, however, the storage will cover less and less time, so it is important to increase storage capacity. The storage of large amounts of gas, however, does pose some safety issues. These could have negative social and environmental impacts if not properly addressed. The staff surveyed all stated that the safety at their workplace was either good or very good, so this does not seem to be a major concern.