Hanson set new sustainability targets towards 2020
Company reports positive achievements despite falling production volumes and tough operating climate
HANSON UK say their 2013 performance and sustainability report shows many ongoing positive achievements in the company’s sustainability performance against a backdrop of falling production volumes and a tough operating climate.
The report covers the calendar year 2012 and reports on performance against five themes: people; carbon; water and biodiversity, waste and raw materials; and systems.
Last year was an important year for Hanson in terms of measuring their sustainability performance as many of the targets set when the business became fully integrated in 2008 had December 2012 as the end-point.
Paul Lacey, Hanson UK’s head of sustainability, said: ‘We have been able to review and monitor our performance over the last four years and set new challenging targets to take us towards 2020.
‘The clear message to emerge is that we have done well, despite having experienced the toughest few years the industry has seen for more than a generation. Inevitably, some key targets were missed as our efforts were hampered by the continuing fall in production volumes, which meant many of our sites were working below full capacity, reducing their efficiency.
‘But lost-time injuries have fallen significantly, the amount of waste being sent to landfill is down by 35% since 2009 and our target to divert from landfill at least half the by-pass dust generated by cement production has also been met.’
Other highlights include:
- OHSAS 18001 certification achieved across main business lines
- Mains water use has fallen
- 102 biodiversity and geodiversity action plans now in place
- Energy use per tonne of product has fallen by 11.5% since 2005
- Creation of new sustainability department to provide increased focus.
Mr Lacey added: ‘We still have a lot of work to do to achieve our 2020 targets. Employee and stakeholder engagement and involvement is critical as we continue to promote the principles of working sustainably and endeavour to embed them into everything we do.’
