IRVING, TX — ExxonMobil shed light on how it is expanding the world's energy supply while reducing its environmental impacts on Tuesday, the day before the oil giant faces a shareholder vote to force more disclosure on its Canadian oil sands investments.

In its 2009 Corporate Citizenship Report released Tuesday, ExxonMobil announced it has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by more than 2 percent last year, or roughly three million metric tons. The company improved its energy efficiency by 1 percent, and cut upstream hydrocarbon flaring by 23 percent. Overseeing all of this is a newly established position of global GHG manager.

Over the last five years, ExxonMobil has dedicated $1.3 billion to improving its energy efficiency, with the overarching goal of increasing efficiency in its refining and chemical operations by more than 10 percent between 2002 and 2012.

Yet some investors are challenging the company to offer more information on its controversial development of resources from the Canadian oil sands, reviled by environmentalists for the vast amounts of energy and water needed to coax the bitumen from sand and clay. The oil sands are home to the second largest oil reserves in the world, but the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the oil are at least 10 percent greater than conventional sources.

In addition to environmental issues, oil sands operations have been the focus of multiple lawsuits from local Aboriginal communities.

"Companies are increasingly being forced to pay the price for the environmental damage caused by their oil sands operations," Shelley Alpern, director of social research and advocacy at Trillium Asset Management Corp., said in a statement. "Given the extra-long investment horizons of oil sands projects, shareholders must know how companies are preparing for these costs and mitigating future risks."

Trillium, along with a group of socially responsible investors, including Green Century Capital Management and the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, filed the oil sands proposal to get ExxonMobil to adequately report by August on how possible risks related to oil sands development may impact the company's long-term finances and operations.

According to Green Century, Nexen oil company dedicated more than three pages in its financial filings to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on risks it faces from oil sands projects.

In its 2009 Global Citizen Report, ExxonMobil acknowledged concerns over water and energy use in oil sands operations, saying it and its affiliate, Imperial Oil Ltd., have taken steps reduce energy and water intensity. The company's Kearl project was designed to use a lower-energy extraction process and cogeneration, which will reduce emissions by 500,000 metric tons in the project's first phase.

ExxonMobil isn't the first oil company to face a shareholder revolt over transparency issues. Last month, days before the Gulf oil explosion and leak, BP shareholder rejected a resolution to force the company to publicly discuss risks related to its own oil sands operations. Six percent of investors voted for the resolution, which its filers considered to be a success.

ExxonMobil, which advocates a carbon tax rather than a cap-and-trade to regulate emissions in its sector, estimates global energy demand will increase by nearly 35 percent between 2005 and 2030. The company recently placed third in sustainability rankings from Two Tomorrows.

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