Preserving resources

Wherever the necessary infrastructures exist, Lafarge:

• recycles construction materials,
• replaces natural resources with by-products from other industries,
• replaces fossil fuels with nontoxic alternative fuels, such as biomass and industrial and agricultural waste.

Lafarge is thus committed to an industrial ecology approach.

For exemple :

• 40 % of the gypsum used by the Group is a by-product of desulfurization in the power industry;
• The paper used to produce plasterboard contains 95 % recycled cellulose fiber.

The Group is committed to limiting the use of natural resources in all of its operations:

• Alternative fuels, such as biomass, account for 12 % of the Group's total fuel uses (versus 11 % in 2009);
  
• 84 % of Lafarge plants use alternative fuels;
  
• Since 2009, the use of solid waste as fuel for the Group's cement plants increased by 20 %.