Thursday, 19 November 2020

Lafarge CEO explains why company polluted river Seine

Responsible, ethical companies don't knowingly pollute rivers.

So what sort of company is LafargeHolcim, accused of dumping dirty water into the Seine "for years"? 

We have already posted on this subject once, but here is François Petry, CEO of LafargeHolcim France, previously CEO of Aggregate Industries, shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted, trying to explain why LafargeHolcim – parent of Aggregate Industries – was found polluting the River Seine in Paris, admitting that the practice was not acceptable, claiming that "strict action plans" have now been put in place to stop it happening again.

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Wednesday, 18 November 2020

Devon quarry operator pollutes River Yealm

On Monday, the Environment Agency received reports of the River Yealm changing colour:
 

The pollution incident was investigated by an environment officer, who: 
 "traced it back to a quarry operation further up the catchment"
Aggregate Industries is one of a small number of operators with quarries in the catchment.  

Aggregate Industries is also the company that wants to quarry Straitgate Farm. A watercourse from Straitgate feeds the mediaeval fishponds at Grade I Cadhay House. Numerous concerns have been raised. Is it any surprise? What would happen if a similar pollution event were to happen here?

Photo: Matt Austin

EDIT 24.11.20
A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said: "The Environment Agency continues to investigate the incident which affected a large stretch of the River Yealm on 16 November.
"Rainfall had caused contaminated run-off to escape the containment area of a quarry-related operation and enter the river."
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Biden plans to halt Trump’s wall – the one LafargeHolcim was so eager to help build

LafargeHolcim – parent company of Aggregate Industries – showed what sort of company it was back in 2017, eagerly telling the world it was ready to help build Trump’s wall: 
The backlash was swift, with warnings from the French government, and a lost contract in Paris. The French Foreign Minister delivered a public repudiation:  
"It (Lafarge) should reflect upon what its interests are. There are other clients who will be stunned by this. Lafarge says it doesn’t do politics...Very well, but I would say companies ... also have social and environmental responsibilities." 
The Paris Mayor deputy said the decision to drop the Lafarge contract was in keeping with: 
"the ethical commitments that Parisians can expect from the city".
We posted that this is the company looking to profit from Straitgate Farm, with subsequent posts here and here. 

It was another PR disaster for LafargeHolcim, more so given it was unlikely the company ever benefited from the wall:  
Trump originally vowed to build a strong concrete wall with ‘see-through’ sections, and toured a site filled with prototypes in 2018. But he later settled on repairing and extending the existing barrier using identical steel slats to those already in place.
 Now, President-elect Joe Biden says he will halt construction of Trump’s wall:

Biden says he will not tear down the 400 miles of barrier already built, but added that no further funding will be granted to the project, which was President Trump’s flagship policy.
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Farmer in hospital after falling into quarry

In its plans to quarry Straitgate Farm, Aggregate Industries has made clear that: 
The applicant is the Landlord of the Agricultural Tenant at Straitgate Farm who has the benefit of an Agricultural Holdings Act 1986 Tenancy Agreement.
Aggregate Industries plans mineral extraction in phases over 10-12 years, during which time dairying operations would continue with cows grazing on remaining pasture surrounding any workings. The Devon Minerals Plan specifies that "the site should be restored to enable resumption of agricultural use... the working and restoration phasing should minimise the area of land not in cultivation". In its Transport Assessment, the company said:
Cow tracks will be installed over Straitgate Farm by Aggregate Industries prior to access being taken for quarrying works to commence to enable the Tenant to continue to farm and carry out their day to day business activities, namely dairy farming.
The mix of quarry and dairy operations would elevate the risks for all concerned, and safeguards would be needed. The dangers were highlighted recently, when a farmer suffered multiple injuries after falling into a quarry while tending livestock.
 
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‘Cracks in cement industry’s CO2 response’

The Financial Times writes that producers of cement – of which LafargeHolcim, parent of Aggregate Industries, is the world’s largest – are “moving too slowly” in adoption of greener methods: 
If the cement industry were a country, it would be the third-largest source of CO2 emissions, behind China and the US, accounting for about 8 per cent of the annual total. 
While the sector’s carbon intensity — the average amount of CO2 gas per tonne of output — has fallen by 18 per cent since 1990, gross emissions increased by roughly half over the same period, according to the UK think-tank Chatham House. If a full-blown climate catastrophe is to be avoided, cement is one area of the economy that will have to shrink its carbon footprint the most. 
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Why is LafargeHolcim against the Responsible Business Initiative?

On 29 November, Switzerland will hold a referendum on the Responsible Business Initiative. If the initiative succeeds, Swiss-based firms – including LafarageHolcim parent of Aggregate Industries:  
will be legally responsible for human rights abuses and environmental violations anywhere in the world, caused by companies under their control. Victims of human rights violations and environmental damage will be able to seek redress in Switzerland.
The corporate lobby is fighting hard against the initiative, saying it will make Swiss companies “guilty until proven innocent” for abuses anywhere in their supply chains, and open the door to “blackmail” by activists.
IndustriALL general secretary Valter Sanches said: “For too long, multinational corporations have been able to hide their abuses behind a veneer of respectability, using plausible deniability whenever bad behaviour is highlighted. The Responsible Business Initiative is part of a global movement by unions and civil society organizations to hold companies responsible for their behaviour. “Our message is this: we are coming for you. There is nowhere to hide. We will hold you accountable.” 

The president of the board of Swiss cement manufacturer LafargeHolcim called the initiative’s demands “a gigantic absurdity”.  
Johannes Blankenbach from the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre argues:
“Responsible companies… have nothing to fear, and indeed stand to gain from such legislation” 
Florian Wettstein, a business ethics professor at the University of St Gallen says companies’ strong pushback on the initiative says something about their confidence – or lack thereof – in their own due diligence efforts: 
“Companies say they are aligned with the UN Principles, but many know that they aren’t doing what they should when it comes to due diligence”

 

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Monday, 9 November 2020

Polluter’s greenwash “backfires spectacularly”

Climate change became news 30 years ago. 

 At Aggregate Industries, CO2 emissions were – at the last count – still rising.

Clearly, as demonstrated by its bonkers multi-million mile haulage plan for Straitgate Farm, Aggregate Industries expects others to do the heavy lifting of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 

Claims that "#sustainability is at the heart of our business, and is incorporated in all of our operations... 🌍" seemingly don’t apply in the county of Devon, or to the company's CO2 emissions.  

Shell – another company responsible for our climate crisis – seems to suffer similar delusions. Many companies – cement giant, major CO2 emitter and Aggregate Industries' parent LafargeHolcim included – are now trying desperately to greenwash their operations. This story shows there’s only so much greenwash that polluters can pump out before it can all backfire spectacularly:

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Overuse of sand ‘one of the major sustainability challenges of the 21st century’

SandStories aims to raise awareness of the "looming global sand crisis": 
SandStories works to create awareness about the urgent need to manage our consumption of sand as a resource. We aim to bridge the gap between science, policy and industry by identifying and promoting potential solutions to the looming sand crisis.

 A new book is in the pipeline: 

Sand has always been perceived to be a symbol of abundance in many cultures. It is popularly believed to be both renewable as well as inexhaustible. This book will challenge that perception and draw the reader's attention to a common yet surprising phenomenon of the scarcity of sand as a resource. From glass to urban infrastructure, from silicon chips to pharmaceutical products, sand is used in mind-boggling volumes. But extensive consumption has resulted in several social, environmental, economic and geopolitical impacts across the globe. Although specific industries have already begun to find alternatives due to shortage of sand, the gravity of the situation hasn't percolated into the mainstream yet. This book attempts to fill that void and make the subject readily accessible to those who wish to delve deeper.
  

Whilst Aggregate Industries’ business model relies on digging up precious farmland to extract more of this limited resource, some companies are operating in a more sustainable way; we posted about one recently, who stated:
It largely goes unreported that sand is on the endangered natural resource list. Globally around 13 billion tonnes of sand are mined for construction and the impact on the environment is vast and unsustainable. 
Natural resources will not be able to cope with on-going demand, but there are alternative solutions that are sustainable.
Of course, there's another way too:
 
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Thursday, 5 November 2020

UK construction

Construction News reports that almost 4,500 construction firms have fallen into financial distress in the third quarter of 2020. The Construction Index reports that profit warnings from stock market listed construction companies have reached a record high:
Most of these warnings (60%) have come from the building materials subsector, as the impact of Covid-19 travelled through the supply chain, rather than from contractors and engineers as found in previous years. 
Meanwhile, today’s Bank of England forecasts show that hopes of a V-shaped recovery have faded. The Bank now predicts the UK economy will shrink by 11% this year – including a 2% contraction in October to December.


In the world of aggregates, the Mineral Products Association points to a recovery over the summer, but now has concerns about winter order books.
 
In the third quarter of 2020, sales volumes were 1.1% lower for asphalt than in the same period in 2019, 6.8% lower for primary aggregates, 14.2% lower for mortar and 14.3% lower for ready-mixed concrete. Industry data on contracts for new construction projects suggest work may be feeding through, but heavy-side building material producers have yet to see a significant pick-up in orders.
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Wednesday, 4 November 2020

DCC says local plan policy tackling climate crisis should be ‘implemented robustly’

Since Aggregate Industries applied for planning permission to quarry Straitgate Farm – and haul material a staggering 2.5 million miles in total to be processed – Devon County Council has declared a Climate Emergency. We have posted about it. Devon County Council’s Chief Executive Phil Norrey said:

This is not about gestures, this is about action
And it must be about action. The UN warned we have 12 years to limit the climate change catastrophe. That was 2 years ago. Every day, more signs of our global heating calamity are emerging; recently we learnt about the release of Arctic methane deposits adding to the domino effect.


Local plans set out policies used by county councils to determine planning applications. They are not prepared for decoration, for fancy bookends, for pressing flowers, but to inform future development. There is no point going to the lengths and expense of preparing local plans if the policies contained within are to be cast aside whenever they get in the way. 

Local plans are periodically reviewed. The Devon Waste Plan, for example, adopted in December 2014, was reviewed this year, taking into consideration amongst other things the Devon Climate Emergency. A Review of Climate Emergency Declaration implications for Devon Waste Plan was published in August 2020:
The Devon Climate Emergency is considered to be a significant change in local circumstance since the adoption of the Waste Plan which requires consideration. 1.1.5
The review presented within this report has identified that tackling climate change features strongly as a key theme within the current Waste Plan. It is central to its vision, objectives and policies. The Devon Waste Plan policies contain a number of measures which seek to reduce and adapt to the impacts of climate change. 1.6.1
The review concluded that:
...at this stage, the existing measures in the Waste Plan are sufficient in the context of the declaration, providing they are implemented robustly. 1.6.2
Providing they are implemented robustly. 

Waste planning and mineral planning often go hand in hand. In fact, the Devon Waste Plan was authored by the same person that compiled the Devon Minerals Plan. Like the Waste Plan, the Minerals Plan also contains policies to tackle climate change. The Devon Climate Emergency would again be a significant change in local circumstance since the adoption of the Minerals Plan. According to the Minerals Plan:
One of the biggest challenges facing Devon’s communities and environment, together with the wider world, is climate change driven by global warming. 3.4.1
Mitigation of and adaptation to climate change is a key consideration and statutory duty for the Devon Minerals Plan, and will be a cross-cutting theme for the Strategy. 2.2.4
Rather than being considered as a discrete issue, climate change is treated as a thread running through the Minerals Plan that influences a range of Policies. In particular: (a) the Spatial Strategy (Policy M1) ensures that the distances that minerals are transported by road are minimised... 3.4.7
Distances that minerals are transported by road are minimised.

Clearly, given Devon County Council’s Climate Emergency Declaration, Minerals Plan policies relating to mitigating climate change should also be implemented robustly. What is the point in declaring a Climate Emergency otherwise?

But the Minerals Plan doesn’t only cover general policies; it contains specific policies on specific sites, including for Straitgate Farm. For this site, the Minerals Plan does not say it’s OK to transport 53,000 28-tonne loads of as-dug material 23 miles from quarry face to processing plant – a total of 46 miles for each load – as Aggregate Industries has proposed. The Minerals Plan for Straitgate says:


Minimal transportation by road.

Clearly we can’t rely on Aggregate Industries to employ a moral backbone and do the right thing; as we posted, Climate emergency? Not at Aggregate Industries. CO2 emissions increase again.

So, if Devon County Council is serious about "one of the biggest challenges facing Devon’s communities and environment", if declaring a Climate Emergency is to mean anything at all, it must indeed ensure that policies that seek to reduce carbon emissions do just that, and are implemented robustly. It’s not rocket science. 

 

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Aggregate Industries' CEO talks net zero

Aggregate Industries plans for Straitgate Farm must rank as one of the most unsustainable quarry schemes in the UK.

So what do we make of these words from Guy Edwards, Chief Executive Officer at Aggregate Industries, talking about net zero pledges?

With the government committing to producing ‘net zero’ greenhouse gases by 2050, the construction industry’s role in safeguarding the future of our planet has never been more prevalent. In short, it means that, along with other sectors, emissions will have to be avoided completely or offset by planting trees or removing CO2 from the atmosphere.
Yes, it is a huge task but the sector has been working hard in recent years to address these issues - we believe that having more stringent local targets in place will only work to drive the industry to cut emissions further and faster.
There is no question about it; the construction industry must become more radical and holistic in its approach to sustainability. In this way, we must deliver the infrastructure overhaul we need to establish real change; from optimising energy efficiencies, embracing new power sources and adopting sustainable supply chains, helping to achieve nearly zero energy buildings (NZEBs) and in turn work towards realising the government’s new pledge.
While the magnitude of the task facing us in achieving ‘net zero’ is clear, we’re confident that a forward-thinking, progressive industry like ours will take up the mantel and lead the way in demonstrating the lengths we can go to reduce our environmental impact, which will positively impact us all.
Working hard to address these issues? More stringent local targets? Radical, further, faster, forward-thinking, progressive? Real change? This surely can’t be the same company wanting to put a new quarry 23 miles away from its processing plant, necessitating a round trip of 46 miles for every load of as-dug bog-standard sand and gravel, 2.5 million miles in total, can it? Surely not!

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AI’s proposed 27m high asphalt plant at Hillhead is ‘contrary to landscape policies & grounds for refusal’

Earlier this year, we posted how Aggregate Industries proposed a new asphalt plant at Hillhead, how planning application DCC/4189/2020 sought to build a 24m high asphalt plant with a 27m high exhaust stack at an elevated position of 141m AOD. The plant and exhaust stack would be visible for miles around; 27m is more than the combined height of 6 double decker buses.


Here’s the predicted Zone of Significant Visibility; brown denotes areas of High Visibility.

Devon County Council’s Landscape Officer has now concluded that the application is "contrary to relevant landscape policies" providing "grounds for refusal": 
The proposed asphalt building, stack and plume of emissions together with the lighting and noise emissions from 24-hour operation are likely to erode the tranquillity and distinctive rural agricultural character of the Lower rolling farmed and settled valley slopes (LCT3B) of the Culm Valley Lowlands (DCA). The proposed taller elements would interrupt the undeveloped skyline in many rural views, introducing an incongruous industrial element that would extend the visual influence of modern development at the site to a far greater area than is the case with the existing development. The nature and operation of the proposed development would not enhance or complement the character of the area and would detract from the quality of rural views enjoyed by a considerable number of people in the area as indicated by the ‘Zones of Significant Visibility’ in the LVIA… I therefore consider that the proposals would have a significant and adverse effect on the special qualities, distinctive characteristics of the landscape, and visual impacts could not be mitigated to acceptable levels within a reasonable period, therefore contrary to Policy M18 of the Devon Minerals Plan.
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Mining


Filed legal documents claim: 
The public environmental health disaster left behind by Anglo means there are more than 100,000 children and women of childbearing age in Kabwe who are likely to have suffered lead poisoning as a result of pollution caused by Anglo.
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