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Lafarge announces Cement 2020 – Sustainability in Action

February 26, 2013  By Aggregates and Roadbuilding


February 26, 2013, Bath, Ont. – Lafarge Canada
Inc., a subsidiary of North America and the Lafarge Group, is pleased to
announce Cement 2020, the next step towards sustainability. Lafarge’s Bath plant
has recently completed its award-winning Energy Farm project and is moving
forward to the next stage in the pursuit of sustainability.

February 26, 2013, Bath, Ont. – Lafarge Canada
Inc., a subsidiary of North America and the Lafarge Group, is pleased to
announce Cement 2020, the next step towards sustainability. Lafarge’s Bath plant
has recently completed its award-winning Energy Farm project and is moving
forward to the next stage in the pursuit of sustainability.

Cement 2020 is a collection of integrated,
multi-partner explorations seeking practical, sustainable recommendations that
are possible to be implemented by the worldwide Cement industry by the year
2020. The triple bottom lines of sustainability are economic, environment, and
social. Through the Cement 2020 project, an international & multi-
disciplinary team of scientists and experts from government, academia,
industry, and leading environmental NGOs will use Lafarge’s Bath plant as an
open case study to identify initiatives that are successes in all three bottom
lines.

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The Cement 2020 project builds on the Energy Farm
project, which was launched in 2008. In the Energy Farm project, a wide variety
of non-food energy crops were planted on Lafarge and neighbouring lands and
subjected to scientific and practical study for their possible role as fuel for
the cement industry. The project culminated in a full-scale biomass trial in
October of 2010.

“The biomass trial was a successful cap to a very
exciting project. We were pleased to host over 75 scientists, members of the
public, and representatives of all three levels of government during the test,”
said Mike Kralik, plant manager in Bath.

Including Lafarge and Government funding, in-kind
support, and other resources, the Cement 2020 project represents over one
million in investment, with approximately one third coming from government.

One of the goals is to someday replace all of the
imported fossil fuels currently used at the Bath plant with locally produced,
low carbon fuels. “Sustainability is like a three legged stool” stated Rob
Cumming, environment & public affairs manager for Lafarge’s Bath plant and
the primary project manager for the project. “True sustainability needs to be
economical, environmentally sound, and socially responsible and we think we can
find initiatives that meet all three goals – and with implementation before
2020. The project is meant to be a community partnership where academics,
environmental organizations, government, the public, and industry join forces
to find the solutions for the Bath plant together. We invite everyone
interested in Cement 2020 to monitor progress through the
www.cement2020.com website which includes the
option to get frequent updates from the researchers and other partners through
Twitter.”


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