CEMEX USA Wins PCA’s Energy & Environmental Awards - CEMEX USA Wins PCA’s Energy & Environmental Awards - CEMEX USA

Monterrey, Mexico - April 22, 2015

PCA awarded CEMEX USA cement plants in Lyons, Colorado, and Brooksville, Florida, with its 2014 Energy & Environmental Awards for achievements in energy efficiency, land stewardship, and outreach.

The Awards were presented on April 13, 2015, at PCA's Spring Meeting in Chicago, Illinois.

The program honors cement production facilities that have taken actions toward continuous environmental improvement to make their plants and their communities better places to work and live.

Outreach

CEMEX USA Lyons facility won in the outreach category, which honors activities that enhance community, employee, and government relations.

The Lyons facility focused on the recovery of adjacent communities after the area was devastated by a 100-year flood in the fall of 2013. In addition to financial support for local organizations, including an employee collection for the Lyons Community Foundation Rebuild Lyons Fund, the plant partnered with several agencies on flood relief and rehabilitation.

CEMEX also opened its facility to the Colorado Department of Transportation for the staging of flood-related debris and temporary storage of explosives found during the post-flood cleanup. The plant donated dumpsters and waste disposal for flood debris.

Energy Efficiency

U.S. EPA’s ENERGY STAR® program recognized CEMEX USA’s Brooksville South plant, Brookville, Florida, for its energy conservation efforts. The facility implemented energy conservation and monitoring technologies, promoted energy efficiency awareness among employees, and completed energy-reduction projects.

By focusing on the use of supplemental cementitious materials, the plant reduced greenhouse gas emissions associated with every ton of cement produced. It also increased the use of biofuels such as peanut hulls, natural wood chips, and pecan shells as an alternative fuels, thus reducing fossil-based fuel consumption.

Land Stewardship

CEMEX USA’s Brooksville South facility also won in the Land Stewardship category, which recognizes efforts to protect and enhance the surrounding land and wildlife.

The plant took a top-down approach to land stewardship, starting an osprey nesting platform on top of the preheater tower. To attract native birds and other wildlife to the area, the facility teamed up with the Wetland Management Services to plant native species in one of its ponds.

These efforts coupled with educational activities conducted at its Environmental Classroom resulted in the facility receiving recertification by the Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC) through the WHC Corporate Lands for Learning and Wildlife at Work programs.

PCA created the Energy & Environmental awards program in 2000. The program is open to any cement manufacturing plant in North America. Judges for the 2014 awards Program included representatives from U.S. EPA-ENERGY STAR, Wildlife Habitat Council, U.S. Geological Survey, World Wildlife Fund, and Cement Americas magazine.