Sustainable Development
Martin Wills Technical Manager
“Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”
Gro Harlem Brundtland, United Nations, 1983
As the leading Irish producer and supplier of cement products, Irish Cement is fully committed to the sustainable development of our business activities.
Our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) focus is on achieving a balanced approach between the environmental, social and economic pillars of sustainability so as to ensure the long term viability of our business for all of its stakeholders. Our policies and procedures are aligned to those of our parent company, CRH Plc, whose solid CSR performance has been highly commended by leading sustainability rating agencies. More information on the CSR performance of CRH is available at www.crh.com
To inform the development of our business strategy and drive continual improvement in our performance, Irish Cement has developed a series of Sustainability Targets in key areas, against which we compare performance to a baseline year. Our performance against these Sustainability Targets is available through the links on this page.
Irish Cement, through its parent company CRH Plc, is a member of the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. CSI is a voluntary initiative by the leading cement producers globally to promote greater sustainability within the cement sector (for more info visit www.wbcsdcement.org).
Several “Critical Issues” have been identified by CSI for the cement sector and Irish Cement is committed to focussing on our performance in these areas and adopting strategic initiatives to yield improvements. Some examples of our current initiatives to address these areas are included in the “Investing in our Future” strategy booklets for Platin and Limerick Works.
We are very proud to now announce that these initiatives have been externally recognised through Irish Cement becoming the first company in the Republic Of Ireland to attain accreditation to the BES6001 standard for our Eco-efficient CEM II products. In the true spirit of balanced sustainable development the BES6001 standard requires that measurable and verifiable performance improvements under all three of the pillars of sustainability (Environmental, Societal, and Economic) must be addressed rather than just focus on any one aspect to the detriment of any other. Details of how we have achieved this status through our objectives, targets, enabling initiatives and performance can be found through the Sustainability Performance links on this page.
Irish Cement is a member of the Cement Manufacturers of Ireland (CMI) trade association which was established in 2003 and is a business association within IBEC. The mission of CMI is to represent the cement industry in Ireland, taking account of the views of all stakeholders and to ensure the many advantages of having a vibrant indigenous cement industry are clearly communicated. More information is available from the CMI website www.cement.ie.
We do hope you enjoy your visit to this website and learn more about the positive sustainability performance of Irish Cement. Should you require further information please do not hesitate to contact us on info@irishcement.ie