Aggregate Industries and its parent company Holcim’s lamentable record on CO2 and climate action is the subject of far too many posts on this blog. But now that COP27 has started, it’s clearly time for things like this again:
As COP27 starts, Aggregate Industries continues to build progress for a sustainable future 🌎
— Aggregate Industries (@AggregateUK) November 7, 2022
We want to embed sustainability in the future of construction, find out more in our sustainability strategy: https://t.co/JLCkXY22ir
#sustainableconstruction pic.twitter.com/nI8CVdU5ha
Even in Devon, how much Aggregate Industries actually cares about climate action is plain for all to see.
In 2015, Aggregate Industries recognised the harm of processing Straitgate material 23 miles away at Hillhead, warning "processing at Hillhead may be feasible, but would generate a massively greater quantity of CO2 emissions", and would be "unsustainable":
8.38 Hillhead Quarry does, however, present an option for processing of the Straitgate deposit, but the consequential impact of additional CO2 emissions from greater haulage distances are considered to be unsustainable.
Fast forward to 2022 – with the climate emergency even more urgent – and processing at Hillhead is exactly what Aggregate Industries wants to do, appealing Devon County Council’s decision to refuse its proposed quarry at Straitgate Farm with haulage of as-dug material totalling some 2.5 million miles.
At the appeal, the barrister representing Aggregate Industries had the gall to claim "transport has been "minimised", complying with M22 [of the Devon Minerals Plan]... Having regard to the available options, the HVO offer, and the greenhouse gas report."
Of course, no other UK aggregates operator hauls as-dug sand and gravel 23 miles for processing.
And it’s surprising that Aggregate Industries even references the infamous greenhouse gas report, subject of much discussion at the appeal. Devon County Council's barrister called it "a deeply flawed piece of work" – completely ignoring the 8 million tonnes of sand and gravel allocated right next door to the Hillhead processing plant.
That’s how much Aggregate Industries really cares about climate change.
