Lafarge

Sector: Corporate

Employees:

>80,000 people

Carbon Footprint:

> 89,200,000 metric tonnes CO₂e (2005)

TARGETS

> 20% reduction in CO₂ per unit of production [tonne of cement] by 2010
> Includes an absolute reduction of 10% in Annex 1 countries of the Kyoto Protocol

Achievements

> 12.75% reduction in CO₂ per unit of production since 1990
> Introduction of a sector-wide global carbon management plan

Benefits

> Reduced energy bills by up to 22% through burning waste fuels
> First mover advantage in sourcing low carbon raw materials

Low Carbon Solutions

Background

Cement is one of the most energy intensive industries in the world, the production of one tonne of cement releases approximately 700 kilos of CO₂ into the atmosphere (60% from the decarbonisation of the limestone and 40% from the burning of fossil fuel), with emissions from the cement industry contributing to 5% of the global total. Lafarge is the biggest producer of cement in the world, and acknowledged the imperative for action early on.

Lafarge is now mandated to reduce CO₂ emissions under the EU emissions trading scheme. PriceWaterhouseCoopers audit the company’s international CO₂ emissions and the results of their audit are sent to WWF for their own verification.

The first measure Lafarge undertook to reduce emissions was to improve efficiency of the heating process, using less fossil fuels and therefore releasing less CO₂. Because energy consumption accounts for 20-30% of the cost of cement, efficiency is also a key business issue. Lafarge has implemented a systematic programme to replace old plants with new ones and, where this is not possible, to upgrade existing sites.

Lafarge is using waste products both as a supplement to raw materials within the cement (see process changes) and to replace conventional fuels – substituting fossil fuels with biomass at many plants (see renewables).

WWF provided Lafarge with guidance when the company set its original target. According to Lafarge’s Senior Vice President, Sustainable Development and Public Affairs, Olivier Luneau, “We were competent in what we manufactured, but we didn’t have adequate competence in some environmental areas. We sought the help of WWF and in 2000 our commitment to reduce our CO₂ emissions was taken jointly with them”.

Lafarge has also been investing in alternative energy projects under the UNFCCC’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), with at least 2 projects approved to date. In Tetouan, Morocco, Lafarge has built 12 windmills, supplying a total of 10MW for a new plant, which will generate credits for approximately 30,000 tonnes of CO₂. The second project, approved in May 2006 involves using palm kernel shells instead of coal at a plant in Malaysia. This will save approximately 60,000 tonnes CO₂. 

Given that Lafarge has been working on the climate issue since before the introduction of the EU ETS, it often takes on a stewardship role through offering encouragement and support to other companies taking action.

Lafarge has worked closely with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and other cement companies to advance emissions reductions within the sector. In 2000, 3 companies – Lafarge, Holcim and Cimpor established the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) – responsible for creating a sector-wide CO₂ accounting method and target regime. Today 17 companies have all voluntarily agreed to use exactly the same methodology to compute CO₂ emissions and commit to set their own target for reduction. According to Olivier Luneau, Senior VP Sustainable Development and Public Affairs, “I don’t think that there is any other industry today that has agreed to a common way to compute CO₂ emissions. These 17 companies are responsible for 50% of the cement manufactured in the world, outside China. What’s more significant is that some of these companies are based in countries that did not ratify Kyoto.”

Lafarge is working to reduce the CO₂ content in cement by mixing alternative materials into the limestone. By-products such as blast furnace slag from the steel industry and fly ash from coal-fired power stations, which have cement-like properties, are increasingly used as additions to traditional cement, thus resulting in lower CO₂ intensity of the product.

The company is also testing how limestone itself can be replaced with alternative materials, lower in CO₂ content. Olivier Luneau, Lafarge’s Senior Vice President, Sustainable Development and Public Affairs believes the company is pushing the boundaries of R&D in an attempt “to find materials with the same resistance capacity, the same strength, but that are lighter so that we need less of them.” Such developments are likely to revolutionise the cement industry.

Lafarge is looking closely at the lifecycle-associated impacts of its product to reduce emissions in the long term. The company has calculated a cradle-to-grave analysis of the CO₂ footprint of a building and found that, of the total CO₂ emissions for the life of a building constructed today, 10% is related to the manufacture of the construction materials, 85% from heating, energy use etc. during the life of the building, and 5% related to demolition.
Lafarge is actively promoting sustainable architecture solutions and is developing higher performance cement which will result in the reduced consumption of materials and a reduced carbon footprint.

Lafarge is committed to accelerating developments in alternative fuels and currently sources 8.7% of its energy from renewable sources and alternative fuels including biomass and waste. Whilst committed to investing in biofuels, Senior Vice President, Sustainable Development and Public Affairs, Olivier Luneau acknowledges that it is unlikely to provide a large-scale resource for the company – “unfortunately it’s very difficult to find biomass for one simple reason, we need huge quantities of quality. Our kilns are at temperatures of 1500ºC and to maintain such heat requires a lot of constant, quality biomass. Today biomass represents a very low percentage of our energy use despite our efforts to develop it”. Due to these challenges, in a further attempt to constrain CO₂ emissions, Lafarge is growing capacity and competence in utilising alternative fuels including used oil and waste that have an adequately high calorific value to replace fossil fuel consumption.

In 2000, Lafarge introduced a target to cut CO₂ emissions by 20% per unit of production by 2010 against a 1990 baseline.

Operating in over 75 countries Lafarge is the largest cement manufacturer in the world, with annual CO2 emissions in the region of 81 million tonnes. ©Edward Parker

©Edward Parker

©Edward Parker
In the Philippines Lafarge installed an energy recovery system to use the energy from rice husks to fuel part of the plant. The husks now form 35% of the fuel source for the dryer. This means savings of 2million litres of bunker fuel oil per year.

The creche in the Ecocity development near Johannesburg SA is made of concrete and designed in line with sustainable architecture principles.