LafargeHolcim join World Ocean Council
Company formalizes commitment to scale up action for sustainable global marine ecosystems
IN celebration of World Oceans Day (8 June), and building on their long-standing commitment to reviving marine ecosystems, LafargeHolcim have joined the World Ocean Council (WOC), a global cross-sectoral industry alliance committed to sustainable ocean stewardship.
Magali Anderson, LafargeHolcim’s chief sustainability and innovation officer, said: ‘I’m extremely proud to formalize our commitment to sustainable ocean stewardship by joining the World Ocean Council. Working with the Council’s members, we expect to scale up our actions to preserve our oceans.’
Paul Holtus, chief executive officer of the WOC, said: ‘We are very pleased and honoured to welcome LafargeHolcim as a member of the World Ocean Council along with other visionary organizations concerned with the health of the global ocean. LafargeHolcim’s focus on driving sustainability with innovation will make a great contribution to the work of the WOC.’
A recent example of such innovation is the global deployment of LafargeHolcim’s bioactive patented bilayer concrete that helps rehabilitate coastal ecosystems. This bioactive concrete has been in place for more than three years in the Parc des Calanques, near Marseilles, in France, where it has contributed to a four-fold increase in marine species.
Building on this success, bioactive solutions are now being installed in other coastal environments in the Pacific, Caribbean and the Persian Gulf, in partnership with EGIS/Seaboost. This work was recently recognized by the Solar Impulse Foundation, which awarded LafargeHolcim’s bioactive concrete its ‘Efficient Solution’ label.
LafargeHolcim are also playing a key role in developing coastal protection solutions. For example, the company is contributing to the renovation of the Afsluitdijk in the Netherlands, a 32km long dyke that is key to the country’s sea defence infrastructure. Specially developed precast blocks will cover around 700,000 square metres of the dyke, protecting it from strong waves and rising water levels.
In addition, LafargeHolcim are part of over 30 international sustainable port infrastructure projects in more than 25 countries, including Australia, Canada, Ecuador, Madagascar, France and the UK.
The company is also actively engaged in preventing marine litter from reaching the oceans, notably through its Geocycle waste-management business. Geocycle India have recently installed the Bubble Barrier in the Yamuna river in the city of Agra. This non-invasive technology removes plastic waste from rivers, which are the source of most of the plastic that reaches the world’s oceans.
