CRH requires all its businesses to operate in an environmentally
responsible manner. The resources and processes that we have put in
place are focused on achieving industry best practice standards at
all of our locations.
Environmental policy
Our environmental policy, applied across all of the Group
companies, is to:
- Comply, at a minimum, with all applicable
environmental legislation and continually improve our environmental
stewardship towards industry best practice
- Ensure that our employees and contractors
respect their environmental responsibilities
- Proactively address the challenges of climate
change
- Optimise our use of energy and resources
through efficiency gains and recycling
- Promote environmentally-driven product
innovation and new business opportunities
- Be good neighbours in the many communities in
which we operate.
Environmental management
Achieving our environmental policy objectives at all our locations
is a management imperative; this responsibility continues right up
to Divisional Director and Group Chief Executive at CRH Board
level.
Daily responsibility for ensuring that the Group’s
environmental policy is effectively implemented lies with
individual location managers. They are supported and monitored at
operating company level by a network of Environmental Liaison
Officers (ELOs). This network covers all of the companies over
which we have management control.
The ELOs are charged with ensuring that company environmental
policies are properly adhered to, and that site managers are fully
aware of their responsibilities in this regard. At each year-end,
the ELOs assist the Group Technical Advisor in carrying out a
detailed assessment of Group environmental performance, which is
reviewed by the CRH Board.
Environmental performance
CRH is committed to investing in a wide range of environmental
improvements across all of our activities and countries of
operation. Plant upgrades typically include process yield
optimisation, increased recycling, better energy efficiency,
abatement of emissions, together with improvements in ergonomics
and safety. This sustained investment program steadily moves us
towards best industry practice in all those areas. Many of our
locations have won high-ranking accolades for excellence in
environmental achievements.
Because of the variety of our businesses, environmental targets
are set at operating company level. In all cases, our aim is to
optimise our environmental performance up to the technical limits
practically achievable.
Environmentally-driven product innovation
In tandem with our commitment to act as a socially responsible
corporate citizen, the Group views the development of products that
specifically benefit the environment as a significant business
opportunity. Consequently this area is a key driver in our sales
and marketing strategies, and forms a key part of Best Practice
exchanges between our companies.
Significant environmental and commercial benefits are also
gained through recycling of used materials. For example we recycle
secondary materials such as asphalt, concrete, fly-ash and slag,
converting these to prime new asphalt and concrete products with
considerable commercial as well as environmental benefit.
Climate change
CRH acknowledges the challenges that climate change presents to
humanity and to our businesses and we are committed to playing our
part in developing pragmatic solutions. We continue to play a
central role in the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI), part of
the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), and
we actively support its pioneering work towards a future global
industry carbon dioxide (CO2) commitment.
Last year, CRH made a commitment to achieve a 15% reduction in
our cement plant specific CO2 emissions by 2015 compared
to the specific emissions from the same portfolio of cement plants
in 1990. We are on track with this commitment through
rigorously implementing best practice in the operation of our
cement plants, while investing €700 million in the period
2007-2009 in creating state-of-the-art cement plants in Ireland,
Poland, Ukraine and the United States. We are particularly proud
that our Ukraine cement plant upgrade is the world's first Joint
Implementation project registered by the United Nations under the
Kyoto Protocol Flexible Mechanism scheme.
In all our activities, increasing energy efficiency and reducing
CO2 emissions remain a major focus. We see climate
change and high energy costs as twin innovative driving forces of
the future and we recognise that the challenges of today can
quickly become the opportunities of tomorrow.
In addition, through ongoing systematic plant upgrading, we
continue to make progress in increasing energy efficiency, reducing
waste, optimising water usage and recycling more secondary
materials and fuels. We believe all of these initiatives are not
only environmentally-positive but also business-positive.
More detailed information concerning our environmental
performance is recorded in our
CSR report.
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