Battelle Leads $3.5 MillionSustainable Development Project
Eleven of the world’s leading cement companies have committed to a two-year project, coordinated by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) in an effort to develop an action plan for the cement industry to adopt more sustainable practices. The project will explore sustainability issues related to the cement industry, with input from a broad range of stakeholders – suppliers, customers, communities, governments, environmental groups, and others. The project will result in an action plan for the cement industry as it moves toward sustainable development, and will consider environmental, social, economic, and governance issues facing the industry over the next 20 years. Currently, the industry produces 1.5 billion tons of cement annually. This project will address how the Industry can maintain or increase production while enhancing environmental performance.
Battelle is leading the $3.5 million project as the integrating contractor, involving staff from Richland and Seattle, Wash., Geneva, Switzerland, Washington, D.C., numerous consultants, subcontractors, and sponsors around the globe.The specific objectives of the project are to provide guidance for cement companies and their stakeholders on how the industry may develop and advance toward sustainable development goals, by
- exploring technical, economic, and social issues, challenges, and opportunities
- facilitating dialogue among stakeholders on a vision for sustainability in the cement industry
- making recommendations and identifying options for achieving the industry’s sustainable development goals.
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Working Group Cement Companies Participating in the Project |
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Sustainability can be defined as the ability to “meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” This definition suggests that corporate sustainability is an integral part of the market needs that the industry and individual cement companies must strive to fulfill in order to achieve business success. By anticipating trends and engaging with the stakeholder community at an early stage, the cement industry will be able to initiate and encourage discussion of the issues in the context of a structured and balanced framework. The expectation of stakeholders is that industry will measure and account for the social, environmental, and economic dimensions (the “triple bottom line”) of its impacts and its performance.
Therefore, it will be possible for the cement industry to use this study process as a stimulus for evaluating and adopting business practices, technology improvements, and social responsibility initiatives that address the three dimensions of sustainability.
How will the results be used?The main study results with measurable action targets directed at both manufacturers and stakeholders will be circulated among a wide audience. That is just the beginning. Once producers know where the problems and opportunities lie—and stakeholders are better informed about the challenges that sustainability poses—all parties can start to mobilize resources to meet sustainability goals.
For more information about this project, contact Howard Klee, WBCSD, at (41) 22 839 3124 klee@wbcsd.org, or Bruce Vigon, (614) 424 5648, vigonb@battelle.org, or visit http://www.wbcsdcement.org.
