Engro has been a torch bearer in valuing its operating environment from mere reactive compliance to proactive environmental stewardship. Over the years we have evolved to preserving the environment we operate in as an active part of our organizational culture. Our commitment towards ensuring our natural capital objectives drives and thrives from the top most tier of governance and management and translates to the respective subsidiaries. Engro Corporation and its subsidiaries take great care with utmost responsibility to define and designate priority areas within their own operating environment to redesign, refine and assign aggressive targets to successful management of environmental effluents and resource conservation. We treat our ecosystem management and responsible resource utilization as our own natural capital and continuously strive for its betterment. It is pertinent to mention here that standardization for us is the key to our success in this respect. All our businesses are certified in environmental management systems EMS 14001, we also maintain a rigorous internal audit regime with a prime focus of continuous learning and improvement from behavioral as well as technical interfaces.
At Engro, we have a three layered approach to our strategy towards valuing our natural capital, at the core is our operations. We at Engro have a firm belief that responsible operations will always result in sustained and improved environmental outcomes. Keeping in view of the multitude of challenges that we face due to our operations predominantly in the Fertilizers, Chemicals, Energy and Agricultural businesses.
We always reflect upon the intended environmental impacts and risks associated to the external and internal environment. We also take great care that we monitor and reduce our negative impacts and bring sustained improvement in our positive impacts with an active commitment and governance structure at each tier of management, this includes a structured approach on adherence to all local laws and applicable standards, classification and regular appraisal of our environmental foot prints, and also to continuously strive towards conservation of natural resources through efficient technology and behavioral change.
In the current reporting year of 2018, our total energy consumption was an estimated 39 million GJ as compared to 38 million GJ in 2017, a marginal increase of 3 %. A major contributor to this marginal increase is Engro Energy whose operations have expanded phenomenally in the coal mining and energy production activities in Thar. Our total water consumption stood at approximately 23 million cubic meters an increase of 4.4% from 2017, major contributors being fertilizers, polymer and energy businesses. Engro Energy’s expanded operations in coal mining and energy production in Thar have been a significant contributor in the increase of water consumption.
It is also pertinent to mention here that we continue to work with our subsidiaries to bench mark and update their corresponding resource and other natural capital footprints with global best practices and assessment parameters especially in energy and water conservation. We are also committed to reducing our carbon and waste footprint. We remain fully committed in compiling with all requirements of the concerned regulatory bodies.