Displaying items by tag: Canada

Canada: Lafarge Canada Inc. have temporarily laid off 31 of its 50 unionised workers for December 2013 at its Brookfield cement plant as a seasonal cost-cutting measure.

"These workers will be back on the job early in the new year," said plant manager Scarth MacDonnell, who added that the temporary layoff is consistent with the seasonal nature of the business. "It is an unfortunate reality given the weather-related impact of the construction industry."

The future of the plant is solid as it continues to service Lafarge customers throughout Canada and the US. "Lafarge is firmly committed to its Brookfield plant for the long term and we will make the necessary investments to secure our future in Nova Scotia," said MacDonnell.

The Brookfield Lafarge plant received US$631,000 from the ecoNova Scotia Fund for Clean Air and Climate Change in 2010 to gear up for production of a new variety of low-carbon cement. The environmentally friendly cement is set to be in production at the plant by 2015.

Canada: A new report by the Winnipeg-based International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) on the implications of climate change on Canada's infrastructure has been published with the support of the Cement Association of Canada.

'Climate Change Adaptation and Canadian Infrastructure' summarises current literature dealing with the challenge of adapting to climate change in Canada. Intended to serve as stimulus for further discussion around planned adaptation to climate change in Canada, the report explored climate impacts and risks to key infrastructure by region and by type. The report also introduced a number of key policy, regulatory, and financial tools for consideration.

"The cement and concrete industry is committed to being a proactive partner in addressing the challenges of mitigating and adapting to climate change," said Michael McSweeney, President and CEO of the Cement Association of Canada. "We are in an age of massive re-investment in our basic infrastructure in Canada, and this presents an enormous opportunity to both mitigate climate change through reduced CO₂ emissions as well as prepare ourselves for the changes in our climate that are already underway."

Canada: Mantra Venture Group has completed the first phase of engineering for its 'Electro-Reduction of Carbon Dioxide' (ERC) pilot plant. BC Research (BCRI), the technology commercialisation arm of NORAM Engineering and Constructors, has delivered a comprehensive first phase report that details the estimated cost of the plant, which will capture waste carbon dioxide at the Lafarge cement plant in Richmond, British Colombia. The second phase of engineering, which will provide a 'ready-to-build' plant design, is set to begin soon.

So far this work has resulted in several process improvements, including the introduction of a product treatment stage that will deliver a highly concentrated liquid product. As this will be capable of reaching the levels at which the products are typically used in industry, Mantra expects to be able to sell product directly out of the pilot plant. Improved process control, instrumentation, and flow scheme will deliver a more robust demonstration and greatly facilitate the commercial scale-up of the process.

"This will be the very first plant to electrochemically reduce carbon dioxide in an industrial setting. I think people will be very excited when they see a valuable, salable liquid product coming out of the Lafarge flue gas stack," said Mantra's Chief Technology Officer Patrick Dodd.

Canada: Lafarge Canada, Natural Resources Canada, the Queen's Institute for Energy and Environmental Policy and Carbon Management Canada have announced that they are investing more than US$8m to develop the use of alternative fuels at Lafarge Canada's cement plant in Bath, Ontario. This multi-partner initiative intends to produce low-emission, low-carbon fuels from local supplies such as construction and demolition site debris (wood based), railway ties, and other energy containing materials that aren't presently recycled.

"We are delighted to bring this world-class demonstration initiative to the Canadian cement industry. We believe that this project is exactly in line with our mission of building better cities by lowering our carbon footprint, making use of local fuel supplies and creating local sustainable jobs," said Bob Cartmel, President and Chief Executive Officer in Eastern Canada for Lafarge Canada Inc.

According to figures released by Lafarge, the Canadian cement industry currently emits about 3.8% of the country's carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions and about 30 - 40% of those emissions are due to fossil fuel use.

Carbon Management Canada (CMC), a network of Centres of Excellence that supports research to reduce CO₂ emissions, is providing a US$400,000 grant over three years to a research team working on the project. Natural Resources Canada is awarding US$2.68m to Lafarge Canada to construct a full-scale demonstration plant. Other project partners include Pollution Probe, WWF Canada, Queen's University, the Cement Association of Canada, Mesa Bioenergy, Scott Environmental and Rail Link, a Metis company.

Canada: The Cement Association of Canada has applauded the Government of Canada's announcement that it will invest almost US$1m in Ontario-based Pond Biofuels for the advancement of Canadian biofuel technology and expertise. The investment will be made under the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario's 'Investing in Business Innovation' initiative.

The contribution will help Pond Biofuels complete a pilot demonstration of a technology developed jointly with St Marys Cement to capture and convert CO₂ and other emissions from the cement manufacturing process into oxygen and biomass.

"This technology pioneered by Pond Biofuels in partnership with St Marys Cement speaks to the Canadian cement industry's commitment to innovation and commitment to reducing its carbon footprint," said Michael McSweeney, President and CEO of the Cement Association of Canada. "Government support plays a critical role in fostering innovation and we warmly welcome the investment in this groundbreaking initiative as an important step in the future of sustainable development for Canada's cement industry."

Canada: Lafarge Canada is planning to develop a community outreach plan as part of the plant expansion and modernisation project set to begin at its Exshaw plant in Alberta in the autumn of 2012. The Canadian unit of French cement giant Lafarge is looking to build a new kiln line on the western side of the current facility and intends to increase production by 60%. It will do this by replacing outdated technology at the 107-year-old cement facility.

The company submitted its development permit application at the start of June 2012 in order to begin constructing the necessary foundations to support the new equipment, including a five-stage preheater, precalciner tower and a new rotary kiln. The Alberta government has already given Lafarge permission to proceed with the project.

On 19 June 2012 Exshaw plant manager Heinze Knopfel said that the community outreach plan would address how Lafarge intends to keep residents informed and address the negative effects of constructing a large industrial plant could have on Bow Valley communities, specifically Exshaw.

"Over the next three years during the construction phase we anticipate that there is going to be additional traffic and extra contractors on site. We will be sharing regular updates with the community and will continue to respond as quickly as possible to complaints," said Knopfel. "Our neighbours are really important to us. We recognise it is a partnership. We meet regularly with the surrounding communities. We want to understand how they feel about their operations and what we can do to improve their life or lifestyle."

Lafarge expects that the construction will take approximately three years with the foundation work beginning in the autumn of 2012. Knopfel said that he expects that this first phase would not have a significant effect on traffic or noise as the number of contractors working on site would be low with only cement trucks and the drilling contractor coming to the site. Two cranes will also be working to move equipment stored on the project site.

Construction on the kiln line itself will likely begin in 2013 with the peak of activity seen in 2014. At that point, Knopfel said he expects there could be 200-350 contractors at the site. He added that the plant's expansion and modernisation project would also provide a good opportunity to improve traffic flows at the plant. Instead of having resource and product trucks enter the plant at the same point, which is what currently occurs, trucks will leave the plant through the current main entrance and enter through a new gate to the west of the plant.

"Instead of the entrance, which is a real bottleneck, we're going to streamline the flow of traffic, which we know will mitigate a lot of the concerns of the community," he said. The upgrade will also increase the amount of cement leaving the plant by rail.

Overall, Knopfel said that he expects the project to have a positive effect in the Bow Valley, environmentally, socially and economically. "I expect the plant expansion will provide tremendous benefits for the community."

Environmentally the standards will be raised beyond the new Alberta requirements. "We're consciously aware of where we are relocating equipment and we're trying to relocate the equipment as far away as possible from the community," Knopfel said. "(The new kiln) is going to be state of the art as far as technology is concerned. It is going to be the newest and the best technology on the market," he said.

The Municipal Planning Commission for the MD of Bighorn is scheduled to review Lafarge's municipal development permit application on 18 July 2012.

Canada: Politicians and community leaders were on hand yesterday to celebrate the fact that St Marys Cement's Bowmanville Plant has received North America's first International Organisation for Standardisation's (ISO) ISO 50001 certification.

Erik Madsen, CEO of St Marys Cement Inc. accepted the certificate at a ceremony at the plant. The award presentation was made by Michael Delisle, CEO of International Certification Services Inc. (ICS). Although the ceremony was official recognition of the plant had achieved certification the company was officially registered as the first North American recipient of ISO 50001 on 15 November 2011.

Upon receiving the Certificate, Madsen observed, "St Marys identified the benefits and embraced the certification process early. The ISO 50001 programme and cement plants are a logical fit. Our Bowmanville plant has a rated capacity of over 1.8Mt/yr of product, operates 24/7 and consumes significant amounts of energy. Managing these energy costs is a no brainer. it is good for the environment and our bottom line."

Fabio Garcia, Operations Manager at the Bowmanville Plant, told ceremony attendees, "Receiving this prestigious certification was not something that happened overnight. The origins of this certification can be traced back to 2005 when we were given the green light by senior management to move forward with an integrated strategy to reduce the plant's energy consumption.  This quickly became an initiative supported and made possible by all of our employees."

CEO Madsen concluded, "The  commitment to energy conservation, and the continual desire to improve processes by the entire staff at our Bowmanville plant,  is the reason that this is the first North American site to receive ISO 50001 certification. The energy conservation elements of ISO 50001 certification means we are on track for over US$1m in savings in 2012 alone.  I want to thank each and every one of our employees, who helped to make this possible."

Canada: René Thibault and Bob Cartmel have been appointed by the Lafarge Group as its senior leaders for all markets and product lines in Canada. Thibault will oversee the four western Provinces and three Territories as well as the Pacific north west and the Dakotas in the US. Cartmel will oversee the six Eastern Provinces.

Thibault has over 20 years of experience with Lafarge in Canada, which has included an assignment at the Lafarge group headquarters in Paris, France. He has an Engineering degree from Queen's University in Ontario and has completed executive studies at Harvard Business School in the US.

Cartmel has over 25 years of experience with Lafarge spanning Canada, the United States and Latin America. He has a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario.

Lafarge said that the appointments, which are part of its wider geographical restructuring programme to bring all of Lafarge's businesses together under a single leader in each geographical area, would provide further career development opportunities for employees, strengthen the company's customer approach as it delivers sustainable solutions to the construction industry and allow its community investment projects to be more focused.