Page 341 - Design for Environment A Guide to Sustainable Product Development

316 Cha pte r Se v e ntee n

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Envirobase offers an environmentally responsible, yet econo-
mical approach to structural fills, roadbase, slope protection, and
flowable fills. Envirobase products are made of fly ash and cement
®
kiln dust and custom blended with Portland Cement to meet each
customer’s individual site requirements. The product is versatile
enough to be used for multiple tasks on the same project—as a soil
cement to stabilize a haul road, as a flowable fill to cover utility cuts,
and even as an absorbent to clean up spills.
Holcim Portland-Pozzolan Cement is a high-performance ce -
ment that improves the properties of concrete. It is manufactured by
inter-grinding or inter-blending a pozzolan (fly ash) with Portland
Cement clinker. The resulting product has increased workability,
increased durability, decreased permeability, reduced sulfate attack,
decreased bleeding and segregation, reduced shrinkage, re duced
heat of hydration, increased compressive strength, and increased
flexural strength. This product can be used for general construction,
as well as the construction of dams, piers, massive mat placements,
footings, and similar structures.
Global Cement Sustainability Initiative
Holcim was a founding member of the World Business Council for
Sustainable Development (WBCSD) Cement Sustainability Initiative
(CSI), a worldwide collaborative program aimed at accelerating the
move toward sustainable development. The CSI brought together ten
of the world’s leading cement companies, and continues to actively
engage the broader cement industry and other relevant stakeholders.
In addition to Holcim, the member companies are Cemex (Mexico),
Cimpor (Portugal), Heidelberg Cement (Germany), Italcementi (Italy),
Lafarge (France), RMC (United Kingdom), Siam Cement (Thailand),
Taiheiyo (Japan) and Votorantim (Brazil).
In July 2002, at the Johannesburg Summit, CSI launched an
“Agenda for Action” in six key areas: climate protection, fuels and
raw materials, employee health and safety, emissions reduction, local
impacts, and business processes. The foundation for this agenda was
a comprehensive report on sustainability in the global cement indus-
try, commissioned by the WBCSD, which included recommendations
for sustainability goals and associated key performance indicators, or
KPIs [6]. As shown in Table 17.2, specific indicators were chosen for
five of the goals, while the other goals required further company-
specific exploration. Several of the goals were relatively new for the
cement industry, such as “Respect the needs of local communities”
and “Support host region economies,” so that common indicators
had not yet been established. Note that the recommended energy goal
uses an eco-efficiency indicator—production per unit of energy— which
is the inverse of the traditional environmental indicator—energy con-
sumption per unit produced.