Our goals for 2030
- Cover 100% of our sites with water management plans by 2027.
- Reduce our water withdrawal intensity by 20% by 2030.
Our 2023 results
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m3 per tonnes of sellable goods produced |
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megalitres (-3% vs. 2022) |
How do we achieve our goals?
How do we achieve our goals?
In August 2023, we released our first Water policy summarising our commitments. We also conducted water risk assessments for each of our locations, gathering all data centrally. This allowed us to clearly prioritise our sites.
Spotlight on water initiatives
Spotlight on water initiatives
- We are reducing our freshwater withdrawal by opting for alternative water sources. Our plasterboard plant in Saint-Loubès, France, concluded an agreement with a local wastewater treatment plant to use recycled treated wastewater for more than two thirds of its actual water needs in combination with rainwater.
- At our fibre cement plant in San Justo, Argentina, we implemented two additional water recycling systems – reverse osmosis wastewater reuse and cooling water recycling. This has enabled the plant to improve its water efficiency by 40%.
Waterflows at our plasterboard plants
Water management is an essential part of our #RoadToSustainability2030. Freshwater is crucial, as we use it to drink, bathe, and irrigate our farms, and it also sustains ecosystems.
Biodiversity
Biodiversity
We understand the impact that our quarries and manufacturing sites have or can have on living ecosystems and biological diversity. In our Biodiversity policy published in 2022, we committed to mitigating our impact and introducing biodiversity management at all our sites and in 2023, and we reinforced our commitment by adding Water and Biodiversity as a sixth priority area in our Road to Sustainability 2030.
We are part of Eurogypsum and have representatives in all environment and biodiversity working groups. In the Quarry Working Group, our mandate includes promoting sustainable quarrying and mining, cooperating with NGOs and monitoring biodiversity-related legislative developments in the EU. On a local level, our businesses are members of similar associations.
Discover our Biodiversity policy
Image: Hartershofen, Germany, restored quarry next to plant