Italcementi
Group signs
WBCSD’s “Agenda for Action”
The business world
is increasingly aware of the need to safeguard the environment and set certain
universally held social values, a challenge committing firms to get actively
involed in the creation of a “sustainable future.” To this
end the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), a worldwide
organization incorporationg over 150 companies, has devised an important project
called the Cement Sustainability Initiavie involving leading companies in
the sector. The ten leading cement manufacturers have signed the so-called
“Agenda for Action” publishing the results of a two-year program of independent
research and stakeholder consultation.
The project focuses on the contribution the cement industry can make to developing
more sustainable growth and is aimed at devising ideas and concrete action
to bring about positive changes in its own long-term activities.
The basic idea behind this project is to try and reduce negative impact on
the environment and community as a whole. The goal of identifying and facilitating
actions that companies can jointly take to speed up this process moves hand-in-hand
with their “license to operate” facing both problems and opportunities The
protocol sets out a five-year program of actions tha take the companies further
toward sustainable development.
This is the only way of guaranteeing a process of business growth in which
environmental, social and economic factors all play an equally important role.
The key priority areas for the cement industry are protecting the climate,
the exploiting of fuels and raw materials, health and safety at the work place,
and evironmental impact on local communities.
Anticipating this project, last April the Group’s CEO, Giampiero Pesenti,
has approved and signed the “Key Principles of the Italcementi Group’s
Environment Policy,” as evidence of the Group’s ongoing commitment to
environmental issues Principles applicable to the environmental policies of
all the Group’s companies and to coordinating action undertaken in this sphere
have also been drawn up
This would be another step in the direction of the Group’s sustainable development
– in the wake of the “Zero accidents” project aimed at reducing accidents
at work places – In and attempt to create a perfect balance between business
growth, environmental prtection and social responsibility by enforcing (and
even improving) the regulations and eco-standards currently in force.
Environment Policy is a key element of the Group’s corporate mission as well
as productivity, efficiency, safety and health, quality and technological
research, based on this general policy, management programs will be set under
way to prevent and reduce negative effects on the environment and optimize/rationalize
the use of non-renewable resources.
Special training and awareness-development programs are also being drawn up,
together with a suitable communications policy aimed at all the employees,
major players in the Group’s Environment Policy.
In this respect the Italcementi Group has always been carefull to constantly
monitor the environmental impact of its own manufacturing processes emissions
of dust, polluting gases and organic/inorganic micro-pollutants given off
into the atmosphere are all regularly monitored and backed-up by salvaging
processes designed to partly replace conventional fuels and raw materials.
Growing environmental demands have had positive influence on the recovery
of waste both as raw materials and as fuels at the Groups cement plants.
Even excavation methods used in the quarries are geared to rapid and effective
landscape recovery. The tendency is now to move beyond mere environmental
“restoration,” or in other words just re-incorporating the exploited area
in its proper setting, to actually redeveloping quarry areas by adapting them
to new and even better uses and fuctions than they were previously used for.
Italcementi Group
Traslated by Interpres
