First Industry-specific Roadmap Examines Emissions Reductions in Cement Industry Geneva, 3 December 2009 - A roadmap published today by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) calls for strong national policies to activate known CO2 mitigation actions that the sector can take now. It also issues a call to action to develop commercially viable carbon capture and storage technologies as a method for further reducing global CO2 emissions from the cement industry. The Cement Technology Roadmap is the first report of its type to cover a whole industry sector and is the result of 12 months of collaboration between the IEA and the WBCSD's Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI).

Quarry Rehabilitation for Ecosystems: How Companies are Restoring Ecosystems and Enhancing Biodiversity Geneva, 8 September 2009 - Quarrying is the fundamental first step in cement production because limestone, shale or clay must be extracted from below the surface to provide the industry's raw material. To show how the benefits of effective quarry rehabilitation can outweigh the long-term costs to the cement companies and to the natural environment and local communities, the WBCSD Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) has collected case studies from its member companies that highlight responsible rehabilitation activities.

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The WBCSD on Cement

Cement is the glue that holds concrete together, and therefore a key ingredient for economic development. Concrete is the second most consumed material after water and it shapes the built environment in the form of homes, schools, hospitals, offices, roads and runways.

The cement industry produces approximately 2.8 billion tonnes of cement per year, and production is growing at an annual rate of nearly 4%, primarily because of rapidly increasing demand in emerging economies.

Cement production is energy-intensive: it accounts for about 5% of global anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide, and it touches on a wide range of sustainability issues, including climate change, emissions to air and water, natural resource depletion and employee health and safety.

Today, the challenge for the cement industry is to balance the growing demand for cement with the need to forge a more sustainable cement industry. The purpose of the WBCSD Cement Sustainability Initiative is to address these issues and to provide vision and direction for a more sustainable approach to the industry's future growth.

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