CEMEX earns most environmental certifications in Mexico

With this year’s certifications of the company’s cement plants in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Tepeaca, Puebla, and Zapotiltic, Jalisco, CEMEX has earned a total of eight WHC certifications for its Mexico operations since 2016.

The WHC’s most recent certifications focus on community projects that promote the restoration and reforestation of natural areas. Each site’s various projects together improve the environment of more than 8300 people and the habitat of numerous species of flora and fauna.

CEMEX Tepeaca, Puebla plant’s gold certification highlights the rehabilitation of its clay and limestone quarry through the company’s planting of 450 species of acacias, peach, guava, and mesquite along 5000 m², reducing soil erosion and enabling groundwater recovery in the area.

The Community Environmental Restoration Program at the company’s Monterrey, Nuevo León plant stands out among the projects that obtained silver certification. The 100 participating promoters worked for a year to recover wild flora and fauna habitats and to construct a pollinator garden.

CEMEX’s ‘Sowing the future’ nursery at its Zapotiltic, Jalisco plant has the capacity to produce 10 000 units of 45 endemic species that are used to reforest the surrounding community. Along with two other environmental projects, the plant obtained the WHC’s silver certification.

WHC promotes and certifies the conservation and management of habitat in areas of company operation through associations and education. Its programme is the only voluntary sustainability standard that is designed to measure the improvement of biodiversity and education activities for environmental conservation. The agency currently operates in 28 countries.

This is the third time that the WHC has awarded certifications to CEMEX operations in Mexico. In 2016, the company’s Atotonilco and Huichapan plants in the state of Hidalgo earned certifications, along with El Carmen, CEMEX’s main conservation project, recognising the company’s biodiversity conservation efforts to protect this area with great biodiversity.

In 2017, the company’s Ciudad Valles and Tamuín operations in San Luis Potosí were recognised for the CEMEX-Tec Center’s Environmental Restoration Program, where young people from both communities are trained through workshops, talks, and dynamic initiatives to develop solutions to the main environmental problems and to contribute to the care of the environment.

In total, the eight conservation certifications granted by the WHC to CEMEX’s operations in Mexico focus on approximately 20 projects and programmes that share the purpose of building better communities by encouraging the efficient use of raw materials, the use of renewable energies, and the regeneration of forest areas.

“It is a great honour to be recognised by the Wildlife Habitat Council as leaders in the preservation of nature nationwide; not only in our operations, but also in the communities of which we are part,” said Ricardo Naya, President of CEMEX Mexico. “Since 2016, we have achieved certification for approximately 20 programmes and community environmental initiatives, with the aim of complying with the highest standards of environmental conservation and biodiversity restoration in the country.”

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/the-americas/22052019/cemex-earns-most-environmental-certifications-in-mexico/