building a better future - Cemex

assessing our water usage and
impacts
Through continued engagement with the IUCN, CEMEX
has created the basis for a materiality analysis addressing
water-related risks and opportunities, and helping define a
roadmap toward strong management of water issues.
The availability of clean, potable water has become a matter
of global concern. Less than 0.5 percent of global water
resources are available for human consumption, even as
populations continue to grow and widespread water contamination
and the effects of climate change further stress
supplies.
While it is estimated that the concrete value chain represents
only 1 percent of global industrial water demand
and 0.2 percent of total global water demand, the risks of
shortages are increasing. Currently, 9 percent of CEMEX
operations are located in officially designated water stressed
zones, based on water data from the WBCSD Global Water
Tool. In addition, water regulations in many of CEMEX’s
countries of operation are now imposing time-limited water
abstraction licenses, stricter water metering requirements,
and new water-discharge constraints.
These developments, combined with increased stakeholder
demand for disclosure around water usage, demonstrate the
need for proactive management of water resources in our
business. To address this challenge, CEMEX worked with the
IUCN in 2011 to produce the following deliverables:
1. Setting the Scene, a research document evaluating
global water issues, associated stakeholders, key issues
of water use in CEMEX’s productive processes, and
methods for assessing water impact.
2. A water benchmark to understand CEMEX’s water
usage in an industry context, and to assess peer best
practices.
“It is expected that within two decades, the
collective demand of humans for water will
exceed foreseen supply by about 40 percent.”
— Water Resources Group, 2009
3. A data-gathering template to enable standardized
reporting on water usage, metering, watershed conditions,
best practices, and local challenges across all of
our business segments and operations.
4. Geographical mapping of more than 2,000 CEMEX
sites—cement, ready-mix, and aggregates facilities—
for comparison with areas identified as water-stressed
zones.
5. A materiality assessment, based upon findings of the
preceding steps, to gauge and prioritize our water risks
and opportunities.
The results of our final materiality assessment will become
available in early 2012 and will be fully discussed in our
2012 Sustainable Development Report.
advancing our waste-reduction
strategy
Our processes generate waste that is disposed of according
to our own standards and the requirements of local
regulations. In terms of operational wastes, cement-kiln dust
represents the largest amount of waste we produce. We now
reuse it in the production process and in other processes. As
we follow the waste hierarchy, we seek to monitor, minimize,
reuse, and recycle our wastes. The actions we undertake in
this area include:
• Monitoring of hazardous and non-hazardous waste generation
in all our operations
• Replacing primary aggregates with other discarded materials
(e.g. demolished concrete)
• Reusing and recycling, as much as possible, the fresh concrete
returned from construction sites
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