The Agenda 21 – passed at the UN Conference in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 – ascribes the industry with the responsibility of bearing a decisive role in regard to sustainable development. Hitherto, sustainability had been recognized as primarily belonging to the state duties. However, the importance of sustainable development for the industry is, as well, clear to see; for example - in the cement industry, production is unavoidably connected to environmental interferences, e.g.: through carbon dioxide emissions or the operation of quarries.

In this light, SUSTAIN CONSULT compiled the documentation “Sustainability and the Cement Industry”. The contractors of this documentation were branch social partners: the Federal German Association of the Cement Industry (BDZ), the Socio-political Working Group of the German Cement Industry (SPADZ), the German Cement Works Association (VDZ), the Trade Union for Building-Agriculture-Environment (IG BAU) and the Trade Union for Mining-Chemical-Energy (IG BCE). In this documentation, previous contributions of the cement industry for sustainable development were analyzed and future challenges and possible courses of action were identified and evaluated. The documentation is centered on the entire range of interconnected value-added chain, from the production and usage of to the recycling of cement and cement-related Building materials. Through this wide-range examination, these highly complex interconnections of sustainable optimization were first able to be uncovered.

Subsequent to the documentation “Sustainability and the Cement Industry”, SUSTAIN CONSULT constitutively moderated the discussion of branch social partners on their long-term cooperation for sustainable branch development. This resulted in the foundation of the Initiative for Sustainability in the German Cement Industry. With the help of this initiative, these social partners then in turn commissioned SUSTAIN CONSULT.

Download Documentation
Link to the website of the initiative

Contact Person:
Ralf Löckener
loeckener@sustain-consult.com
T: +49 (0)231 – 981 285 11