NET ZERO EMISSIONS BY 2030:
HOW TGS IS MAKING A HOUSTON IMPACT
Great ideas often have simple beginnings. TGS, an energy data & intelligence company, knows this well.
Following an employee’s suggestion, the company shielded the brutal Texas sun at their main office parking lot with solar canopy-covered parking.
This solution protected workers and their cars while generating electricity to soften energy usage at their Houston location. Officially recognized by the city council, an impressive 1,650 solar panels across 15 canopies have redefined the local energy standard.
We spoke with Whitney Eaton, Executive Vice President for People and Sustainability at TGS, to understand how this project, and impact projects like it, achieve sustainability, provide savings, and foster a better world for future generations.
Sustainability
Looking through an Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) viewpoint, TGS fulfilled numerous sustainable objectives with this single solar project. First, the covered parking provides a better workplace for the employees. “Most important, it reduces our carbon footprint,” Eaton says. In the first three months, the solar canopies have avoided 1.4 million pounds of CO2 and reached the carbon equivalent of planting 1,000 trees. Therefore, by focusing on renewable energy sources, the landmark project lessens TGS’s carbon climate impact while promoting energy security for Houston. “We’re providing and ensuring that we have a sustainable energy grid for the state of Texas because whatever energy we don’t immediately consume goes back to the Texas grid.”
While TGS minimizes its environmental footprint, they do so sustainably. For example, they partnered with Freedom Solar, a company that understood the supply chain of sourcing solar panels to ensure material supply and manufacturing were completely ethical. “And that was an important part to us because it doesn’t do any good to address the environmental impact if you’re contributing to a more detrimental social impact,” Eaton continues.
As a data and intelligence company,
TGS deals with vast amounts of data that will only increase in the modern-day technological environment. But TGS is always looking forward, and for a data company, nothing stands higher than partnering with carbon-neutral data centers while improving their own. Eaton explains, “One petabyte is the equivalent of 20 million four-drawer filing cabinets filled with text or 13.3 years of HD TV. And we deal with over 150 petabytes on a regular basis in our operations, which requires substantial compute.” Despite an overall increase in computing, they’ve upgraded their on-site data equipment and decreased emissions by 10% yearly since 2021.
Savings
While the project’s first three months have been during a low production period (September-December), the solar panel canopies have consistently generated 50% of their office’s energy. TGS pulls the other 50% from renewable grid energy, which they give back to during overproduction periods. “That being said, we still produce 180 MegaWatts of electricity which financially equates to about 26 thousand dollars in energy savings, but another equivalent is about 296 barrels of oil,” Eaton says. “And when you look at it that way, it’s a lot!”
TGS is excited for the upcoming summer months to witness the extent of energy they can produce and provide back to the community. Moreover, these impact projects must bring both monetary and environmental savings.
Eaton referenced another obvious solution with EnerGeo Alliance, the global trade alliance for the energy geoscience industry, the Ghost Net & Marine Debris Removal Initiative (GNI), which “is essentially a giant pollution pick-up project for the ocean.”
With TGS’s involvement with the marine industry, their consistent ocean surveying turned into debris regulation for the environment. Over the past few years, TGS has required vessel contractors to collect all pollution they cross and dispose of/recycle it respectfully. “For example,” Eaton explains, “last year we alone, on our projects, removed 5,494 kilograms of marine debris from the ocean.”
Fostering a Better Future
Whether a landmark project in Houston or the world’s largest PV solar plant in Egypt, TGS is committed to confronting commercial operation issues while helping customers fix theirs. “We want to help ensure that we are supporting the overall energy chain and positioning our customers to be able to do so,” Eaton says. Their recently acquired Norwegian-based company Prediktor has provided leading asset management in real-time data solutions for global solar panel projects. Eaton continues, “It makes sense to, as a data and intelligence company, position us and our customers for a better future from an energy standpoint.”
Consequently, solar energy is only the tip of the TGS’s iceberg. Though they’ve historically supported oil and gas industries, the company has built resources to promote other energy sources for future solutions. “You’re going to need a strong energy mix, and there will be an energy demand that goes forward that will not decrease anytime soon,” Eaton claims. “We think we have a very strong role to play in supporting that demand, whether it’s oil, gas, wind, carbon capture and storage, or solar power.”
Partnership and collaboration are the core of what makes large-scale sustainable projects successful. “I truly think to be effective, you have to be willing to work together,” Eaton says. Such as another project TGS supported with EnerGeo that promoted the development of offshore marine seismic emissions reporting standards covering scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. This collective experience provided clear, published guidance to an industry in desperate need. Eaton concludes, “To me, this is a big step forward to being able to tackle the real problem of how to now address those emissions in your operations.” A single company can help a city’s future, but several groups working together can change the world.
A single company can help a city’s future, but several groups working together can change the world.
“Last year we alone, on our projects, removed 5,494 kilograms of marine debris from the ocean.”
- Whitney Eaton, Executive VP for People and Sustainability at TGS
Expect Rapid Change
“Sustainability is both big and small. There are big things we need to collaborate with; there are also small things you do to help your workforce,” Eaton concludes.
While Houston’s goal is to slash emissions by 40% by 2030 and become carbon neutral by mid-century, TGS pushes an ambitious sustainability goal to be net zero by 2030. Their solar canopy project is but a step forward that will provide clean energy for the next 25 years. As TGS forges ahead, they are excited, and sure, these projects will plant the seed of a bright future for sustainability.