Thursday 26 September 2019

Discover LafargeHolcim’s ‘unique perspective on sustainability’

LafargeHolcim – parent company of Aggregate Industries – was at the UN climate summit in New York this week, as any organisation should be that emits as much CO2 as LafargeHolcim does – 121 million tonnes* in 2018 alone, more than most countries.

Knowing what we know now – with deadly warnings an increasing feature on our news screens as the impacts of global heating accelerate – a failure to fight climate change is surely a crime against humanity. As one article puts it:
There can be no greater crime against humanity than the foreseeable, and methodical, destruction of conditions that make human life possible.
Is LafargeHolcim fighting climate change? Really? If so, the company's contribution to this crime against humanity shows no sign of reducing, being 118 million tonnes of CO2 in 2017, 115 million tonnes in 2016.

But of course – in this post-truth world we find ourselves in – rather than confessing the scale of its growing contribution to our climate crisis – a crisis that according to the IPCC could produce a death toll of hundreds of millions in the coming decades – LafargeHolcim had the gall to ask us to "Discover our unique perspective on sustainability", bigging up the merits of concrete, telling us – after emitting 350 million tonnes of CO2 over the last 3 years – "we are part of the solution, we are not part of the problem":




This year, we have posted about LafargeHolcim’s unique perspective on sustainability:
Climate emergency? Not at Aggregate Industries. CO2 emissions increase again

* Net CEM CO2 emissions. Total gross direct CO2 emissions 135Mt. Total indirect CO2 emissions 30Mt. Source: LafargeHolcim Sustainability Report 2018
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Aggregate Industries ‘urges local authorities to be more eco-friendly’


It's rich, coming from a company that can’t even reduce its own emissions – as we posted in Climate emergency? Not at Aggregate Industries. CO2 emissions increase again – emissions that have increased more than five-fold over the last 20 years, now nearly 1.3 million tonnes of CO2 per year.

Aggregate Industries says "local authorities, highways agencies and other contractors must take action now", to buy its lower temperature asphalt Superlow which can cut CO2 emissions "by up to 15%". The Head of Research & Development and Technical Services at Aggregate Industries argues:
After all, with the government’s recent pledge to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, if we are to successfully transition to a low carbon society, we will all need to do ‘our bit’.
Here, here. And now that Aggregate Industries recognises the need to do its bit, and "with the industry under increasing pressure to use #sustainable materials", the company will surely ditch its nonsense diesel-guzzling plan for Straitgate – with its 2.5 million mile haulage scheme; won't it?

Or doesn't that count? Would all the CO2 from this scheme somehow be different? Is Aggregate Industries just urging others, whilst merrily carrying on as normal? Is it fine for local authorities et al. to do their bit as long as that doesn’t curtail the economic activities of a multinational cement conglomerate?

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Deaths at LafargeHolcim 50x the murder rate for London

LafargeHolcim is the parent company of Aggregate Industries. We have previously posted about The terrible human cost of LafargeHolcim’s operations:
A staggering 201 people have lost their lives whilst working for LafargeHolcim over the past 3 years – 50 in 2015, 86 in 2016 and 65 in 2017– including direct employees, contractors and subcontractors.
Unions claim LafargeHolcim has "the worst health and safety performance in the industry".
LafargeHolcim says its performance has since "improved significantly..." (LH Sustainability Report 2018 p55]
One employee and 18 contractors lost their lives in 2018.
Over the last 4 years, that works out at an average rate of 55 deaths each year, and, given that LafargeHolcim has some 75,000 employees, a rate of 73 deaths per 100,000 employees. Compare this with the crime epidemic in our capital, which according to bellingcat.com:
the murder rate for London for 2018 is 1.52 per 100,000 population
More recently we’ve posted that the terrible cost of LafargeHolcim's operations is not confined to workers: Disaster near LafargeHolcim quarry, and Cyclist in her twenties crushed by Aggregate Industries cement lorry in Battersea.

This month another tragedy has been reported from Canada:

A corroded section of the walkway collapsed and the worker fell almost 30 feet to the ground below. He later died from his injuries.
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Monday 23 September 2019

LafargeHolcim’s solution to the climate emergency? Burn more plastic

Ahead of the UN climate summit in New York, LafargeHolcim – parent of Aggregate Industries – has announced that it is spending CHF160 million (£130m) – spread over three years – 'to reduce its carbon footprint in Europe'.

LafargeHolcim is the world’s largest cement company. Based on the company's 2018 accounts, such a sum represents just 0.5% of one year's sales, 6.7% of one year's pre tax profits.

One measure proposed by LafargeHolcim in these grand plans, is to increase the amount of 'repurposing' – or to you and me, burning – of plastic waste, to fire the company's cement kilns. LafargeHolcim claims it can save 3 million tons of CO2 in doing so:
The objective is to reduce annual CO2 emissions in Europe by a further 15 percent like-for-like, representing 3 million tons, by 2022. This will be achieved with an investment of CHF 160 million into advanced equipment as well as technologies to increase the use of low-carbon fuels and recycled materials in the company’s processes and products.


As with all these announcements, some context is useful to decide whether "3 million tons by 2022" would indeed "reduce our carbon footprint substantially". LafargeHolcim – named 'second worst company for increasing CO2 emissions', and acting in a way that would "wipe out most life on the planet" – emitted some 121 million tonnes* of CO2 in 2018, more than the majority of countries in this list. This was 3 million tonnes more than the year before – an increase, in fact, more than the amount it now proposes to save.

LafargeHolcim is keen to talk about 'repurposing', less keen to talk about incinerating:
One of the key levers to improve carbon-efficiency is to integrate the principle of circular economy into the cement production process by using waste materials instead of fossil fuels and primary raw materials. In 2018, LafargeHolcim repurposed 11 million tons of waste materials including 2 million tons of non-recyclable plastics that would otherwise end up in e.g. landfills creating further CO2 emissions. By stepping up its efforts in Europe the company aims at repurposing an additional 1.5 million tons of waste which would lead to avoiding 1 million tons of CO2 per year.
Many question the merits of burning plastic, or whether – for the sake of the climate emergency and CO2 emissions – we should be burying non-recyclable plastic waste instead. Plastics are extremely stable. Despite LafargeHolcim's claims, about plastics in landfills "creating further CO2 emissions":
In general, incineration of plastics produces much greater amounts of CO2 than landfill.

The BBC article Should we burn or bury waste plastic? argues "there's a strong case against incinerating plastics":
They don't break down in landfill, so don't emit greenhouse gases.
Dominic Hogg from Eunomia told BBC News: "When coal is phased out for generating electricity, incineration of unrecycled waste will be the most CO2-intensive form of generation.
"This doesn't make sense if the government's trying to reduce CO2 emissions - unless the government takes drastic action to reduce the amount of plastic in unrecycled waste."
The environment minister Therese Coffey told the Commons: "In environmental terms, it is generally better to bury plastic than to burn it."
In fact, whilst the world continues to produce mountains of plastic waste – and until we can "reduce, reuse, and recycle" – some think "that burying waste plastic in landfill is actually a cheap form of carbon capture and storage":
Governments have been promising for decades to develop plants that will capture the carbon emissions from power stations and force them into underground rocks.
Burying plastic would have the same effect of locking up unwanted carbon at a fraction of the cost.
Elena Polisano, Oceans Campaigner for Greenpeace UK reluctantly agrees. She told BBC News: "We should reduce, reuse, and recycle, in that order.
"When we get to the stage of deciding whether to burn or bury waste, we have already failed, failed some more and then failed again.
"However, it is safer to contain that failure than to spread it through the atmosphere in the form of toxic gases."
So, plastic waste: "a cheap form of carbon capture and storage" or incinerated and spread "through the atmosphere in the form of toxic gases"?

Welcome to LafargeHolcim's idea of climate action.


* Net CEM CO2 emissions. Total gross direct CO2 emissions 135Mt. Total indirect CO2 emissions 30Mt. Source: LafargeHolcim Sustainability Report 2018
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Aggregate Industries is still having problems with profitability

Aggregate Industries has filed its Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2018. They show pre tax profits of £68.5m, up from £46.3m in 2017, on sales of £1,297m, up 2% from £1,272m.

But whilst some might report "Profits Surge for Aggregate Industries", in actual fact pre tax profits are still short of the £105m reported for 2016, and the £102m (pre-exceptional) reported for 2015.


Aggregate Industries sells about 44m tonnes of material each year. That works out as an average price of about £29 per tonne, compared with Breedon’s 31m tonnes at £28 per tonne. AI's parent LafargeHolcim sold 600m tonnes of material in 2018 at an average price of about £37 per tonne.

What sets these companies apart however is profitability. Aggregate Industries’ pre tax profit is just £1.56 per tonne, a margin of little more than 5%, whilst Breedon’s is £3.00 per tonne, a margin of more than 10%. LafargeHolcim’s is £3.18 per tonne, a margin of 8.6%.

Clearly, Aggregate Industries is not firing on all cylinders, and LafargeHolcim’s Swiss bean counters will be all too aware of this. We've already posted this month that Aggregate Industries has reduced its workforce by 7% over the last two years.

Perhaps Aggregate Industries has taken its eye off the profits ball, forgotten that from an economic standpoint "the reason for a business's existence is to turn a profit."

As an example of AI's thinking on profits, you only need to look at the company’s plans for Straitgate Farm. As we posted last year in AI’s profits down 56% in 2017; Breedon’s profits up 52%:
If the way Aggregate Industries has run its planning application for Straitgate Farm – spending years and goodness knows how much money going after an ever diminishing amount of sand and gravel some 23 miles away from where it would be processed – is any indication of how the wider company operates, is it any wonder… etc etc
In fact, given that Aggregate Industries has made a pre tax profit of just £1.30 per tonne averaged over the last 2 years – with economies of scale at super quarries Glensanda ("annual production capacity in excess of 9 million tonnes"), Bardon Hill ("approximately 4 million tonnes of aggregates per year") and Torr Quarry ("produces in excess of 5 million tonnes per annum") – you wonder how much profit would be generated from a greenfield quarry in East Devon yielding 150,000 tonnes per year, less than 1 million tonnes in total, where each as-dug load necessitates a round trip of 46 miles before onward delivery. Any at all? Or less than zero?

We’ve already estimated that AI’s haulage costs for such an operation would be in the region of £500k per year – before any allowance for haulier's profit. As-dug material from Straitgate would contain 20% waste, so that's £4 per tonne just to get material to the processing plant. We posted that "over 10 years, it would cost AI £1m just to transport the waste" and said:
It doesn't look like economics is Aggregate Industries' strongest suit. The haulage scheme is plainly bonkers. Plainly unsustainable. And plainly not, as we keep being told, "at the forefront of efforts to mitigate climate change."
But Aggregate Industries' problems are bigger than Straitgate. Clearly things aren’t getting any easier for the UK construction industry. Witness the woes at Kier, Costain, Interserve, Carillion etc, witness the storm clouds of Brexit and uncertainty over HS2. With just a few months left in 2019, what Outlook in its financial report did Aggregate Industries paint for this year? Strangely enough, given the worsening backdrop, an identical one – word for word identical, bar the year – as the company painted for 2018, in its report for the year ended 31 December 2017:
Outlook
It is anticipated that UK Construction Output will reduce in 2019, albeit not significantly. As a result it is envisaged that demand levels for our products and services will be, at best, flat. The outlook for the Sector is encouraging for the medium to long term, with major infrastructure projects and the need for increased housing provision. However, the slowing economy and the uncertainty emanating from the decision to leave the European Union is expected to suppress investment in the short term.
In addition, it is anticipated that input costs, particularly oil related and energy will increase at levels well above inflation. However, we have instigated a number of initiatives aimed at reducing the overall cost base of the business. These are focussed, principally, in the operational excellence, procurement, logistics and sales and general administration functions.
The target will be to further improve the key performance indicators of the business but in an, at best, flat market scenario much will depend on our ability to recover the cost increases through price and service improvements.
Perhaps Aggregate Industries has finally got the profits message, and is now saving costs on financial report writers too.
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Brazil dam disaster – firms to face criminal charges



It has now been reported that the Brazil dam disaster firms are to face criminal charges.


Brazilian federal police have proposed criminal charges against mining giant Vale and German safety firm Tüv Süd and 13 of their employees over January's deadly dam collapse, reports say.
Police reportedly say both firms used falsified documents that said the Feijão dam was stable.
At least 248 people were killed as a sea of mud engulfed a staff canteen, offices and nearby farms.
The collapse was Brazil's worst industrial accident.
Twenty-two people are still missing.
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Friday 20 September 2019

Exeter climate strike marches on Devon County Hall

As millions of people across the world joined a global climate strike led by schoolchildren, these were some of the scenes in Exeter today:

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Wednesday 18 September 2019

LafargeHolcim ‘has eliminated 30% of headquarters staff & legions of consultants’

Aggregate Industries – the UK subsidiary of LafargeHolcim – has seen a number of changes to its workforce over the last couple of years, some even affecting the Straitgate project. We’ve previously posted that over that period AI has reduced its workforce by 7%, that AI loses another CEO and that there's yet another change at the top of AI’s aggregates division.

What's behind these changes? Is it the economy or pressures from its parent company?

One thing that is clear is that parent LafargeHolcim has been in a race to cut costs and slash debt. Jan Jenisch joined as CEO on 1 September 2017. This Bloomberg article tells more:


By his own reckoning, LafargeHolcim was "in a very tight race" to avoid a damaging credit rating downgrade, and is still suffering from a lack of shareholder confidence.
Is Jan Jenisch about to release investment into the UK? With Brexit and UK construction markets in the doldrums, it’s unlikely. In any case, he has other targets in mind:
German chemical maker BASF SE has put its construction chemicals business on the block and Bloomberg News reported LafargeHolcim is bidding for the division, which could fetch more than 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion).
Jenisch declined to comment on the sale process, but left no doubt the asset would be a good fit for LafargeHolcim’s solutions and products unit, his top choice for expansion. 
"We’re going to be part of developing the next building materials," he said. "Construction chemicals can be part of that or we can partner with someone. There are many options to go that route." A new generation of products could help combat carbon emissions, for which the cement industry is increasingly under fire.
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Aggregate Industries’ greenwash – using visions of the Far East

Only last month, we posted that Charcon – part of Aggregate Industries – has visions of Thailand. We pointed to a company that produces concrete products for the UK "hard landscaping" market using a photo of Thailand to greenwash its claim that "we'll continue our mission to cut our net CO2 emissions of all products":


It subsequently transpired that Aggregate Industries had not continued its mission to cut CO2. In actual fact, the company's emissions (kgCO2e/tonne) had increased in 2018. We posted Climate emergency? Not at Aggregate Industries. CO2 emissions increase again.

However, it's not only Charcon that's attracted to views of the Far East to greenwash its operations. Aggregate Industries UK – a company, the clue being in the name, that operates in the UK – is also tweeting stock photos from the Far East, hoping no-one recognises Singapore's most iconic hotel:


How solar panels and views of Singapore relate to the #CircularEconomy – from the perspective of a UK aggregates business – is anybody's guess.

The link leads to AI's latest sustainability report and Page 8 does indeed talk about the circular economy and the "increased tonnages of inert waste being used as Recycled Concrete Aggregates (RCA)... reducing our reliance on quarried aggregates":
Previously some of our sites have stockpiled inert production waste (concrete and asphalt) to avoid downcycling it or even worse going to landfill, while they waited for the opportunity to reuse the materials. This now means we are reaping the benefits of these stock piles that we are recycling back into our products, reducing our reliance on quarried aggregates.
We also used nearly 800,000 tonnes of recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) this is a perfect example of the circular economy in action, old road surfaces are removed, reprocessed to a suitable size and then added in to the new asphalt mix that can then be used as replacement road surface. Reducing the reliance on imported bitumen and quarried aggregates.
Bravo for that. But before we get carried away, it's worth pointing out – in this perfect example – that 800,000 tonnes represents less than 3% of AI's annual output of aggregates, last reported as 29.60 million tonnes in 2017.
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Both AI’s recent planning applications for Devon have run into problems with the EA

Aggregate Industries has launched two planning applications for Devon in recent weeks. We have posted about them here and here. DCC/4132/2019 seeks to import some 200,000 tonnes of subsoils and clays as part of a revised restoration scheme at Marshbroadmoor at Rockbeare in East Devon. DCC/4146/2019 seeks to continue to work secondary aggregates at Lee Moor, near Shaugh Prior on the outskirts of Plymouth, until 2050.


This week, the Environment Agency also raised concerns – about both applications.

On the revised restoration proposal at Marshbroadmoor, with regard to "obtaining an appropriate environmental permit", the EA says:
The applicant should however be aware that part of the site is currently being restored via an existing CL:AIRE declaration while the remaining part has already been restored in line with a recently surrendered environmental permit. The existence of the current CL:AIRE and the Environment Agency’s view that part of the site has already been restored could impact on our ability to agree to any new environmental permit on the area covered by this planning application. The applicant is therefore urged to seek appropriate professional advice prior to progressing their plans for this site.
Contaminated Land: Applications in Real Environments (CL:AIRE) is a respected independent not-for-profit organisation established in 1999 to stimulate the regeneration of contaminated land in the UK by raising awareness of, and confidence in, practical and sustainable remediation technologies.
On the proposal to continue to work secondary aggregates at Lee Moor, the EA has objected:
The previous use of the development site presents a high risk of contamination that could be mobilised during operational phases and pollute controlled waters. As the planning application is not supported by an appropriate risk assessment, it does not meet the requirements set out in paragraphs 170 and 178 of the National Planning Policy Framework.
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Can we expect a run on gravel??

Government advice Get ready for Brexit is strangely silent on the matter, but could there be better news for Aggregate Industries on the horizon?

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Oh, boy. When it rains in Ottery… it really rains

More flooding last week in Ottery St Mary.



Something to bear in mind, with Aggregate Industries' plans for a quarry on top of the hill above this town.


The dire warning comes as the Exeter-based national weather forecaster unveils a new tool for predicting extreme weather - and it was published in a new report titled 'UK Climate Projections: Headline Findings', released this month by the Met Office, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affiairs (DEFRA), the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Environment Agency.
It says summers are getting hotter - with "increases in the intensity of heavy summer rainfall events."
"Winters in the UK, for the most recent decade (2009-2018), have been on average 5% wetter than 1981-2010 and 12% wetter than 1961-1990. Summers in the UK have also been wetter, by 11% and 13% respectively."

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New portal tracks UK hydrological situation as it happens

has launched a new web portal that allows users to assess information about the latest hydrological situation and drought conditions across the country in near-real-time.

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It’s really not going well for UK mining projects

There have been two large mining projects in the UK in recent years – both have run into trouble.


Yesterday, there was further bad news for Sirius. It has failed to secure the £400m needed for the next phase of development, after the government refused to provide support. Sirius has only enough cash to last six months. Its shares fell by almost 60%. In an effort to save the mine, the company will wind down construction work and as it seeks to find a partner or alternative financing.

Chris Fraser, Managing Director and CEO of Sirius, blamed "poor market conditions" and Brexit:
Nearly every meeting we had in July and August, every single investor asked about Brexit.



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Monday 9 September 2019

LafargeHolcim uses Solidia ‘CO2-sucking cement’ to greenwash spiralling emissions

You would hope – for a company that pumped out 121,000,000 tonnes* of CO2 into our atmosphere in 2018, 3,000,000 tonnes more than the year before, 11,000,000 tonnes more than the entire Czech Republic, itself Europe’s 5th biggest CO2 polluter – that cement producer LafargeHolcim, parent company of Aggregate Industries, was working towards solutions with a lower carbon footprint. LafargeHolcim says it is:


To clarify – when LafargeHolcim talks about "our @SolidiaCO2 #concrete" – in reality the company is just one of a number of investors that have been backing Solidia Technologies, a startup company using materials technology born out of Rutgers University:
Solidia’s patented processes start with an energy-saving sustainable cement and cure concrete with CO2 instead of water. Combined, they reduce the carbon footprint of cement and concrete up to 70%.
Based in Piscataway, N.J. (USA), Solidia’s investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Bright Capital, BASF, BP, LafargeHolcim, Total Energy Ventures, Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) Climate Investments, Air Liquide, Bill Joy and other private investors.


Last month, 11 years after Solidia's foundation, LafargeHolcim and Solidia announced they would supply a US plant making paving slabs.


Anything – however small – that reduces the CO2 emissions from cement and concrete is a step in the right direction, isn't it? Of course. Unless it allows the cement majors to hide behind a barrage of greenwash – giving the impression of action, rather than making serious cuts to emissions.



LafargeHolcim has been making the most of its investment in Solidia, publicity-wise: pushing out press releases, basking in the green glow of articles like LafargeHolcim is selling CO2-sucking cement for precast, reduces emissions by 70 percent.


Other investors – also in an effort to greenwash their activities – have publicised their involvement too:


But let’s not get too excited. So far, uptake of Solidia's cement has been slow. Earlier this year, it was claimed that "the carbon impact of Solidia Technologies cement and concrete has surpassed four million kilograms."

It's a significant amount. But given how much LafargeHolcim – the world's largest cement company – publicises its involvement with Solidia, let's put that number into context: 4 million kilograms – or 4000 tonnes – amounts to less than the CO2 emissions that would result from Aggregate Industries' 2.5 million mile haulage plan for Straitgate Farm; 4000 tonnes amounts to less than 700 tonnes for each of the six years that LafargeHolcim has been part of the project, which is just 0.0006% of the company's emissions in 2018.


It's impressive just how much greenwash LafargeHolcim can create from 0.0006%.


Unfortunately for humanity, emissions at LafargeHolcim – like those at its UK subsidiary Aggregate Industries – are going up, not down. As the Treehugger article says:
Now if only there was a big honking carbon tax that would light a fire under the industry to actually change; otherwise the transition will take forever.


* Net CEM CO2 emissions. Total gross direct CO2 emissions 135Mt. Total indirect CO2 emissions 30Mt. Source: LafargeHolcim Sustainability Report 2018
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Drakelands’ new owner ‘looking to restore the site, not mine tin & tungsten’

The Plymouth Herald reports that "Plymouth's closed-down Drakelands mine has a new owner":
A newly set-up firm is associated with the company that lost £8m when the mine went belly up is now restoring the site.

We have previously posted about the tin and tungsten mine at Hemerdon near Plymouth. Drakelands opened to great fanfare in 2015, but warning bells were already ringing in 2016, and the mine ceased operating last year when Wolf Minerals appointed administrators having lost £100 million. It was the first new metal mine in Great Britain for 45 years. In 2015, Devon County Council Leader Cllr John Hart had said:
There is a long heritage of mining and quarrying in this part of the county and to mine one of the world's largest tungsten deposits will have a positive impact on the local and regional economy, which is good for jobs and the prosperity of Devon… the County Council has worked closely with Wolf Minerals to ensure the infrastructure and modern environmental controls required for the project are in place.
And indeed, DCC did work closely with Wolf Minerals, approving planning applications despite the "horrendous invasive unacceptable" impact that blasting and low frequency noise was having on the lives of local residents.

After Wolf Minerals went to the wall, we asked Who would take on Drakelands? It was an important question, given that the restoration of a huge scar on the Devon landscape hung in the balance.


DCC had stated in 2016 that funds were available for restoration:
There is already in existence a restoration bond with Wolf Minerals which was required as a part of the original legal agreement associated with the 1986 planning permission…. The value of the bond was calculated by the Mineral Valuer in 2014 to be in the region of £15 million… the operator has already posted the full amount into an Escrow Account to ensure that the finance remains available for this purpose. 6.135
One company hit by Drakelands’ fallout was Hargreaves Services, who lost £8m relating to Wolf’s failure. In July this year, Hargreaves reported:
As previously announced, in October 2018, one of the Group's customers, Wolf Minerals Limited, announced that it had ceased trading and subsequently it went into liquidation. As a result, the Group incurred an exceptional charge of GBP8.1m. The Group continues to have a small presence at the Hemerdon mine site where it is carrying out minor maintenance and asset safeguarding activities. The future of the site remains unclear, but Hargreaves is well positioned to secure any restoration or other work which may arise in due course. Hargreaves is not considering operating the mine.
Given the "cost of reopening the mine being put at about £40million" it’s not clear who would. Liquidators of Wolf Minerals have also been busy:


The Plymouth Herald reports that Hargreaves has now bought the mine, with a view to winning restoration work, not mining tin and tungsten.
A Department for the Environment spokesman said: “Some assets, including the mine, was bought from Wolf Minerals by Drakelands Restoration Ltd earlier this year. I believe the firm is coordinating the restoration of the area.”
Drakelands Restoration is one of a number of Hargreaves group companies listed under Hargreaves Corporate Director Ltd at Companies House.
Will that be the last of mineral working in the area? Don’t hold your breath. In August, planning application DCC/4149/2019 appeared for land south west of Drakelands Mine, Sparkwell, for "exploratory trenching for mineral exploration."

EDIT 11.9.19 Heavy earth-moving equipment arrives on site:


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Thursday 5 September 2019

Climate emergency? Not at Aggregate Industries. CO2 emissions increase again

As we posted yesterday, Aggregate Industries has just released its 2018 sustainability report. AI says:
2018 has been challenging, both politically and economically, and the drought across the UK brought home our fragility in the face of our changing climate.
So how did the company react?

Given the drought, what dramatic cuts did it make to its water use?
Our mains water use has increased to 14 litres/tonne of production, an increase of 1 litre/tonne compared to 2017.
AI reminds us that:
In early 2019 Sir James Bevan, the Head of the Environment Agency said that within 25 years England will not have enough water to meet demand.
Meanwhile, the MPA – the trade body for the UK's aggregates, cement and concrete industries – helpfully reminds us that the climate emergency is climbing the global agenda:


Allegedly, AI is determined to reduce its #emissions per tonne:


So, given "our fragility in the face of our changing climate", what dramatic cuts did AI make to its CO2 emissions in 2018?
Our emissions intensity (kgCO2e/tonne) showed a modest increase due to issues hampering our attempts to use more biomass and sustainable, waste-derived fuels within our cement operations.
Aggregate Industries is the company that has been promising action on emissions for YEARS. In 2006, it said "climate change... it’s happening and we have to take action now". In 2012, it said "By 2016 we will reduce process carbon emissions by 20%". And yet this is the company’s record:


Back in 2007, the company said:
In our first report in 2000, our reported emissions for 1999 were 228,267 tonnes of CO2.
The company now emits more than 5x that amount – nearly 1.3 million tonnes of CO2 each year.

LafargeHolcim’s net CO2 emissions increased in 2018 to 121,000,000 tonnes*, up from 118,000,000 tonnes in 2017, up from 115,000,000 tonnes in 2016
Inhabitants across the world are feeling the full force of our climate emergency at this very moment. Aggregate Industries and parent LafargeHolcim clearly couldn't care.
... companies like @LafargeHolcim for example bring us straight into a 6 degree world. 


* Net CEM CO2 emissions. Total gross direct CO2 emissions 135Mt. Total indirect CO2 emissions 30Mt. Source: LafargeHolcim Sustainability Report 2018
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Wednesday 4 September 2019

Aggregate Industries is feeling the pain

Aggregate Industries has reduced its workforce by 7% over the last two years, from 4,143 full time equivalent employees in 2016 to 3845 in 2018, its latest sustainability report shows.

Not only that. The company has gone from recruiting an average of 40 apprentices in each of the previous three years, to recruiting just 4 in 2018. It has gone from having 43% of the workforce in the over 50s age bracket in 2017, to just 21% in 2018. The company has even lost its Head of Sustainability, by the look of things.

Parent company, LafargeHolcim, is no doubt driving for a higher return from its UK outpost. However, the UK is obviously not a favourable place to invest in at the moment – whilst there are numerous growth opportunities for cement conglomerates elsewhere in the world.

In a sure sign that things aren't pretty in the UK, AI has given up reporting production figures in its sustainability report. The company had previously disclosed such figures, at least as far back as 2000.

The company has also been renting off excess regional office space at Croft Quarry, near Hinckley, to raise £50k pa.
Tim Claxton, Regional Estates Manager at Aggregate Industries, said: "Our office complex provides several advantages: substantial office space spread across several former agricultural buildings, in a pleasant village location with good parking provision."
Croft Quarry is not closing down. Far from it. As the Leicester Mercury reports:
The firm is seeking to extend the quarry – a huge hole in the ground covering 81 acres - to release 6.3 million more tonnes of aggregate in a process that could take up to 20 years.
In plans expected to be completed by 2052, it also wants to fill the huge hole with 22 million tonnes of waste – including from HS2. AI plans to dump:
London’s waste over the next ten years, waste generated from HS2 and then expand into other major infrastructure projects across the UK utilising rail as a principle form of transport.
Environmental campaigners have raised concerns about polluting groundwater. AI says:
We take our environmental responsibilities incredibly seriously, and, as such, are audited by the relevant local authorities several times each year, and the planning application for this project will be supported by a full environmental impact assessment which will disclose any and all impacts on the local environment including ecology and local water sources.
From the goings-on at Straitgate, we know all about how seriously AI take local water sources.

We have digressed. AI is no doubt feeling the pain. Yesterday it was reported that the construction downturn is intensifying:
Construction new orders saw their biggest drop for 10 years last month, while the lack of business optimism has not been so bleak since December 2008
Uncertainty surrounds future big infrastructure projects. The latest news on HS2 – Britain’s biggest construction project – will not have helped: the review, the delays, the ballooning budget, the cover up. Many commentators see the outlook for HS2 as bleak. AI's cheerleader, the MPA, says the HS2 uncertainty "beggars belief":
Our members have invested in detailed planning and improved capacity to supply the tens of millions of tonnes of materials required for this major public infrastructure project. We are most concerned to see yet more delay and uncertainty over HS2. The Government should decide promptly, commit firmly and deliver the project on time.
This being the largest deforestation programme since World War 1, where ancient woodlands are replaced with saplings – large proportions of which have died.


We have digressed again.
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Disaster near LafargeHolcim quarry

Trust us. We know what we’re doing. Say the aggregate giants.

A blast at a Lafarge quarry in Zimbabwe has killed one person and injured another, says Global Cement:
Agence Ecofin has reported that two women were at home on Pangoula Farm, Harare, when debris from the quarry entered through the roof, striking 36-year-old Shupikai Chatsina, who lost her life instantly, on the head. She leaves behind a husband and five children. The second woman, Ms Chatsina’s aunt, is recovering in hospital.

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The Great British Hedgerow Survey

Aggregate Industries' plans to quarry Straitgate Farm would see extensive distances of ancient hedgerows up to 4m wide grubbed up. Little compensation has been put in place to offer alternative habitat for bats and dormice.

An extensive amount of important hedgerow will be destroyed. This is completely irreversible. The hedgerows are present on maps dating from the turn of the 20th century (Appendix 1) and are likely to have existed for centuries before this. Compensation planting (for that is what replanting is – not mitigation as suggested) for losses of irreplaceable habitat should be at a ratio in the region of 30 – 1. Proposed replanting and that already done falls far short of this.
The PTES has recently been tweeting on the importance of hedgerows, and has started the Great British Hedgerow Survey:










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