Preserving resources < Commitments & case studies < Sustainable Development: Lafarge

Environment

Preserving resources

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Lafarge has defined 2 objectives with regard to the preservation of natural resources: reducing consumption and finding alternative solutions.

Using alternative products

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.

The Group is committed to limiting the use of natural resources in all of its operations. Recycled materials already account for:

more than 10% of the raw materials consumed in the production of cement,
more than 50% of the raw materials used to manufacture plasterboard,
50% of the raw materials used for the production of concrete and aggregates.

Use of raw materials - 2008 Report (P.D.F - 221 Kb)
Industrial ecology - Crescendo magazine (P.D.F - 1155 Kb)
Cement Business and industrial ecology
Climate change
Environmental case studies

Use of pozzolan and alternative fuels, Uganda

Recycling

Some examples

Gypsum: a large part of the raw materials are replaced with building and demolition waste. Synthetic gypsum is used more than 50% of the time.

Cement: 11% of the raw materials used are alternative materials: slag (residual impurities from steel industry blast furnaces) and fly ash (the main waste product from coal-fired power plants).

Cement Business and industrial ecology

Conserving water

Lafarge:

reduces its water consumption. Between 2000 and 2008, the amount of water used in manufacturing dropped by 21% for cement.
preserves fragile wetlands,
recycles water by collecting washing and cooling water.

2007 saw a further step forward as the Group instituted a more thorough system for identifying the source of the water Lafarge uses, and how used water is disposed of. This fuller data will enable the Group to improve its stewardship of the whole water cycle and to deliver further improvements in future years.

In 2008, water recycling systems are already installed at:

77% of cement sites,
74% of concrete and aggregates sites,
65% of gypsum sites.

In 2009, with the renewal of its WWF partnership, Lafarge integrate water in its 5 main commitment with the development of a better understanding of the Group's water consumption to better reduce it.