In recent years the Group has put significant effort into raising awareness among managers and employees about their responsibilities with respect to carbon emissions reduction.
Today, moving from awareness to action, a full, centralised CO2 management process has been defined and implemented, and carbon emissions reduction is factored into the decision-making process. Subsidiaries regularly monitor and report their emissions through a company-wide tool which is embedded into the overall company data reporting system and aligned with the WBCSD protocol for CO2 inventory in the cement industry. All indicators are reported at Group level and performance is tracked.
Despite the challenges of its recent expansion in booming emerging cement markets and of maintaining its already high performance levels in mature markets, Italcementi Group has chosen to remain committed to its original carbon reduction target. In 2002, Italcementi Group committed itself to a voluntary target for the reduction of its specific carbon gross emissions: 711 kg per ton of cementitious products by 2008-2012.
To meet its current target, the following way forward has been defined by the Group:
- increased thermal efficiency of processes, through the gradual replacement of old technologies with energy efficient processes;
- increased production of blended cement;
- use of alternative fuels and raw materials, wherever economically feasible.
In terms of technology, the most substantial recent investments carried out by the Group are thenew Malaga plant in Spain (which began operation in early 2007), the new Martinsburg plant in the US (now under construction), and the new Agadir, Devnya and Yerraguntla plants in Morocco, Bulgaria and India respectively (which will soon begin the construction phase). Several further refurbishment projects in mature markets are planned for 2009-2010, which will almost complete the technology upgrade.