Global building materials heavyweight Votorantim Cimentos has announced its 2030 sustainability commitments. The objective is to align the Brazilian-headquartered company's worldwide operations to current and future needs of society, thereby creating a positive impact on the entire value chain and in the communities where the company operates.
The commitments are divided into seven pillars: ethics and integrity; health, safety and well-being; diversity and inclusion; innovation; environmental footprint; circular economy; and shared value.
Votorantim Cimentos’s goal is to reduce its CO2 emissions per tonne of cement to 520kg by 2030. Between 1990 and 2019, the company reduced its CO2 emissions per ton of cement by 23 per cent, from 763kg to 591kg. In the long run, the company is committed to developing and implementing technologies that will enable it to deliver carbon-neutral concrete to society by 2050.
“Our 2030 Sustainability Commitments are aligned with Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) best practices and converge with our commitment to the Climate Change agenda. Our vision for the future is based on the concept of ‘flexible solidity’. We are solid in delivering what we set ourselves to do with excellence, ethics, safety and global performance. At the same time, we are flexible to adapt to the new needs of society, leveraging trends and technological developments to make better use of resources, evolve processes and positively impact people’s lives,” said Álvaro Lorenz, Votorantim Cimentos’ global director of Sustainability and Institutional Relations.
The key levers that Votorantim Cimentos will use to achieve its goal of reducing CO2 emissions include:
• co-processing – substitution of fossil fuels in cement production kilns, especially for biomass and solid urban waste
• lower clinker content in cement – cementitious cements (such as blastfurnace slag, fly ash, natural pozzolans, calcined clay and others)
• energy efficiency and use of renewable energy sources – 45 per cent of electric energy generated by renewable sources
• concrete recycling – making this chain more circular and maximising CO2 absorption by concrete through recarbonation
• efficient use of concrete in construction projects
• application of technologies of carbon capture and sequestration or carbon use at scale
Votorantim Cimentos is also a signatory of the 2050 Carbon Neutral Concrete Climate Ambition, launched by the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) in September 2020. Efforts focus on producing global and regional technological roadmaps – documents that detail initiatives and practical actions to achieve this goal, says Votorantim Cimentos
Founded in Brazil in 1933, Votorantim Cimentos is one of the largest companies in the global building materials industry. The company is present in 11 countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Uruguay (South America); Canada and the United States (North America); Luxembourg and Spain (Europe); Turkey (Europe / Asia); Morrocos and Tunisia (Africa). Peru, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey, United States, and Uruguay. Votorantim Cimentos has a cement production capacity of 31.1 million tons/year and recorded revenues of R$12.6 billion (US$2.31bn) in 2018.
