Displaying items by tag: community

India: The Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board conducted the public hearing for Meghalaya Cements’ planned expansion of its Meghalaya cement plant on 24 August 2023. The producer had already secured a no objection certificate (NOC) for the expansion, which will raise the plant’s capacity by 73% to 1.49Mt/yr. The Meghalaya Monitor newspaper has reported that around 150 protestors from the local community disrupted the hearing held at Thangskai in Jaintia Hills District. The crowd reportedly demonstrated against the lack of prior engagement with the neighbourhood. It also took objection with the company’s failure to hire half of plant staff locally, as it had previously committed to do.

Meghalaya Cements has apologised and suspended two employees for their conduct during the hearing. India Today NE News has reported that the two employees used ‘unparliamentary’ language.

Meghalaya Cements said “The company once again apologises to the local people due to the behaviour of our employees. We assure you that the company is committed to promoting peace, harmony and a conducive environment for the employees and the villagers associated with our company, and also assure you that no such untoward incident will happen in the future.”

Spain: Residents of Cartagena, Murcia, have protested Cemex’s plans to begin mining pozzolan at new sites locally. The Murcia Plaza newspaper has reported that the protestors are calling for a mining ban, in line with their interpretation of the area’s Rural Area of Special Environmental and Social Sensitivity designation.

Peru: UNACEM Peru said that it reduced its CO₂ emissions per tonne of cement by 2.7% year-on-year during 2022. Throughout the year, the company reduced its electricity consumption by 3.4%. It sourced 90% of its electricity from renewable sources and met 70% of its fuel needs with natural gas. UNACEM Peru is committed to reaching carbon neutral cement production by 2050.

In terms of community engagement, the producer benefitted 76,700 people through its social infrastructure investments and 14,1000 people through its dialogue space initiatives, and provided its remote health guidance service to 3000 people.

Indonesia: Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa has engaged Japan-based environmental consultancy Amita Holdings to support a two-year feasibility study to investigate ways to make its cement production carbon neutral. The study will commence with trials of industrial wastes as alternative raw materials and municipal solid waste as refuse-derived fuel. Amita Holdings says that it is in the process of building a recycling-based society in Indonesia, in partnership with Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa.

Amita Holdings supported the establishment of the community-led Meguru waste sorting facility in Central Java. Two of Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa’s cement plants – the 18Mt/yr Citeureup cement plant and 4.1Mt/yr Paliman cement plant – are situated in neighbouring West Java.

Germany: Heidelberg Materials has celebrated the 150th anniversary of its founding with a ceremony under the slogan 150 Years of Progress. Throughout its existence to date, the company has grown from 35 employees in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, to 51,000 employees across 50 countries.

CEO Dominik von Achten said “150 years of progress, innovation and expertise are both an incentive and an obligation to help shape a more sustainable future for generations to come.” He added “We also want to make this a tangible experience here in Heidelberg where our company is based. That is why today marks the start of our anniversary campaign New Meeting Points of Innovation for Heidelberg. In the coming weeks and months, meeting places will be created in the Heidelberg city area to encourage exchange and innovative discussions. For this purpose, we want to set up a total of 150 benches made of sustainable building materials, and plant trees.”

India: Sanghi Industries suspended operations at it Sanghipuram cement plant in Gujarat from 13 June 2023, ahead of the landfall of Cyclone Biparjoy on 15 June 2023. EB News has reported that Sanghi Industries has established refuges for its workers and host community, and has prepared food and first aid deliveries, emergency transport and monitoring. The company said that it will restart operations when normal conditions resume and in compliance with the advice of the government.

Times Now News has reported that Cyclone Biparjoy killed two people and injured 22 on the coast of Gujarat. Extremely heavy rain is forecast for 17 June 2023 in Kachchh District, where the Sanghipuram cement plant is located.

India: Local people have launched a protest outside Wonder Cement's Kherwas grinding plant in Madhya Pradesh. The Free Press Journal has reported that the protestors are requesting that the company provide more jobs to people from the plant's host community. They stated their intent in memoranda submitted to the plant management and the local government. Local rules require companies operating plants in the area to appoint applicants from the local community to 75% of plant jobs.

Wonder Cement is a subsidiary of Rajasthan-based RK Group.

Pakistan: A court has ordered a report by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) into alleged breaches of emissions rules at Kohat Cement's Kohat Cement plant in Babri Banda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Dawn newspaper has reported that alleged dust and chemical emissions from the plant have contributed to a local rise in cases of cancer, asthma and lung diseases, according to complainants.

Residents have filed a petition for contempt proceedings against the EPA and Kohat Cement, as well as local and provincial government authorities. The court previously ordered the EPA to monitor Kohat Cement's emissions in 2018. At that time, it also instructed Kohat Cement to operate its electrostatic precipitators system at all times that cement is being produced. Local residents claim that the plant has continually failed to operate the system.

Sweden: Cementa is running trials on a pilot water treatment plant in the File Hajdar limestone quarry near its Slite cement plant in Gotland. The pilot plant has been running since September 2022 and the subsidiary of Germany-based Heidelberg materials describes the first results as ‘promising.’ The cement company plans to build and pay for a full-scale water treatment plant at the site. Engineering and design company AFRY has been collaborating with Cementa on the project.

Matilda Hoffstedt, the manager of the Slite cement plant, said “We can contribute to greatly strengthening the public water supply here in northern Gotland. The results from the pilot project are extremely promising and we see that a new water plant would really make a difference to the water supply throughout the year.”

Cementa started work on the water project in 2021 with a feasibility study and plans for the pilot. The entire feasibility study is expected to be completed in the summer of 2023 and the goal is to be able to put a full-scale water plant into operation in 2027. However, Cementa says that it needs a long-term permit for its mining operations in Gotland in order to invest in the project. The cement producer has faced opposition to renewing its permit at the site since 2021. A perceived threat to the area’s drinking water supplies has been a repeated concern made by groups against continued quarrying in the area.

Austria: Zementwerk Hatschek's Gmunden cement plant eliminated 3800t of CO₂ emissions from its local area during 2022 through its contribution to municipal heating. Zementwerk Hatschek, a subsidiary of Rohrdorfer, heats local households using recovered heat from the Gmunden cement plant's waste heat recover (WHR) system.

A delegation of cement plant representatives and local officials from Baden-Württemberg, Germany, visited the plant to learn about its WHR and heat supply systems on 20 January 2022.

Plant manager Peter Fürhapter said "Municipal heating based on our waste heat contributes to CO₂ reduction in Upper Austria, helping us to achieve our CO₂ reduction goals under the Paris Climate Agreement." He added "We are pleased that with this forward-looking project we are a model for similar projects in Europe."