Votorantim Cimentos, a CEBDS member, renewed its Sustainability Commitments, with specific goals for the next ten years. One of the main ones is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from 591kg to 520kg per ton of cement by 2030. Between 1990 and 2019, the company has already reduced its CO2 emissions per ton of cement by 23%, a volume that went from 763 kg to 591 kg. By 2050, the company is committed to developing and implementing technologies that allow society to deliver carbon-neutral concrete.
A big challenge taking into account that the global trend is towards a growing demand for infrastructure, with the expectation that the world population living in urban areas will increase from 55% to 70% in 30 years according to the UN. To talk about this goal and other commitments for 2030, CEBDS and Votorantim Cimentos organized a life event for this Friday, 27/11, at 2pm, on the companies’ Instagrams. sign up here.
Concrete is the second most consumed material in the world, after water. In September this year, a front that strengthens the goal of carbon neutral concrete was launched worldwide by the Carbon Neutral Concrete Climate Ambition 2050, of the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA), an entity of which Votorantim Cimentos is a signatory.
“Our Sustainability Commitments for 2030 are aligned with the best environmental, social and governance practices, known as ESG, and converge with our commitment to the Climate Change agenda. Our vision of the future is based on the concept of flexible solidity. We are solid in delivering what we propose with excellence, ethics, safety and global operations. At the same time, we are flexible to adapt to the new needs of society, using trends and technological developments to make better use of resources, evolve processes and positively impact people's lives”, says the Global Director of Sustainability and Institutional Relations at Votorantim Cements, Álvaro Lorenz.
The commitments are divided into seven pillars: ethics and integrity; health, safety and well-being; diversity and inclusion; innovation, environmental footprint; circular economy and shared value. Within diversity and inclusion, the goal is to reach at least 25% of women in leadership positions and achieve at least 90% of favorability in diversity and inclusion surveys with female employees. Regarding shared value, one thing that caught our attention is the goal of having 20% of employees engaged in volunteering initiatives and 60% of local sourcing, promoting local purchases, respecting the specificities and definitions of each region in which VC is present.
An example of a circular economy in the Amazon
Votorantim Cimentos made a difference in the Amazon with the use of açaí seeds, a typical palm tree in the region. Around 80% of bulk açaí are just seeds, which ended up being discarded along the production chain. The numbers are immense: 800 thousand tons of fruit seeds generated in the state of Pará without correct disposal, generating a huge environmental liability.
After much research and testing, the AFR (Alternative Fuel and Raw-Material) area at Votorantim Cimentos developed a new process to replace coke, a fuel derived from petroleum, with açaí seeds.
In 2019, the company's Primavera factory processed 70 thousand tons of açaí seeds, avoiding consuming 30 thousand tons of coke in the year. These volumes led to a reduction in CO2 emissions of 75 thousand tons/year (direct emissions). Additionally, more than 150 thousand tons/year of CO2eq (carbon dioxide) were avoided as a result of changing the final destination of the seed, which in another environment would emit methane during its decomposition process.
The co-processing process brought a series of social and economic benefits and environmental, such as the reduction of CO2 emissions, inclusion and generation of employment and income for local communities in the state of Pará. The Metropolitan Region of Belém alone produces, on average, 2 thousand tons of seeds daily, which previously they would be sent to landfills and dumps, and now generate income for local communities and savings for Votorantim Cimentos.
