Lafarge Africa Restates Commitment To Environmental Sustainability

Lafarge Africa Plc has restated commitment to the promotion of environmentally sustainable operations across its operations.

The company has invested significant resources, about 7.5mCHF to reducing environmental impact of its operations to the barest minimum by adopting state-of-the-art technology whilst prioritising the health and safety of its people and host communities.

Lafarge Africa sets high standards for health, safety and the environment (HSE) as the company’s goal is to conduct its business with zero harm to people while minimising its environmental footprint.

To achieve this, it has completed the installation of a new bag filter technology at its Ewekoro plant, which is a key milestone in the Company’s compliance to Nigerian Regulatory Standards and in line with its sustainability strategy.

Head of Health, Safety and Environment, Lafarge Africa, Rachael Ezembakwe said: “we continuously upgrade our operating models and strategy through extensive investments in research and innovation.

“In order to comply with global standards and contribute to building a safer planet, we successfully replaced our dust emission control device in our Ewekoro Plant I, from the Electrostatic Precipitator (ESP) to a more modern and effective system, the ‘Bag House’ dust collection system.”

“To mitigate dust emissions from other sources, such as from roads surrounding its plants, Lafarge has instituted measures to consistently reduce fugitive emissions in all its plants, preserve the local environment and minimize the impact on the neighbouring/host communities. The company also conducts air quality measurement of its plant up to 10 km radius to assure conformance to acceptable limits.

“We are fully aware of the environmental impact of our operations, particularly on our host communities. As such, we carried out a comprehensive social impact assessment in our Ewekoro plant in the year 2020, resulting in a robust action plan to reduce dust emission.

“The implementation of the action plan involved changing the Electrostatic Precipitator (ESP) used at the Plant to a bag house filter, in addition to other significant adjustments to our production activities, over a period of six months. A robust maintenance system was also put in place for the dust control equipment at the Plant,” she said

Ezembakwe noted that, Lafarge Africa maintains a good relationship with its host communities, and as part of its corporate social responsibility, the building solutions company has continued to live up to its billing of improving the living standard of its host communities in Ewekoro and Sagamu in Ogun State with the provision of basic business & vocational skills, start-up kits, education grants, community projects, agricultural funds, healthcare and education facilities, among others, on a yearly basis.

To reiterate Lafarge Africa’s commitment to the health of its host communities, she stated that, Lafarge provides annual medical examination and treatment, including medications, medicated glasses, wheelchair among others to support the health of community members.