HeidelbergCement and BirdLife International become co-operation partners
This Friday, 16 September 2011, HeidelbergCement and the internationally recognised nature conservation organisation BirdLife International have signed a co-operation agreement. The primary goal of this partnership is to further improve the protection of biodiversity at quarrying sites.
HeidelbergCement expects that this collaboration will further strengthen its leading role in the promotion of biodiversity at quarrying sites. As early as 2009, the Group was the first company in the international building materials industry to issue a binding guideline on biodiversity management.
“We are pleased that, in BirdLife International, we have been able to attract a highly competent partner for the further development of our biodiversity management”, said Dr Bernd Scheifele, Chairman of the Managing Board of HeidelbergCement AG, who personally signed the co-operation agreement. “Together, we will analyse and optimise our existing work and define new activities in order to promote the preservation of biodiversity at our quarrying sites even more effectively.”
“This open and cooperative collaboration should also send a message to our stakeholders. We will give BirdLife insight into the workings of our quarries and sand and gravel pits throughout the Group and implement biodiversity management projects at these sites together. These projects should make our impact on flora and fauna transparent, assess the effects, and deliver improved approaches that will allow us to give back to nature more than we have taken.”
“We are delighted to enter this relationship with HeidelbergCement, a pioneer in integrating environmental sustainability in the activity of extracting resources, and we feel confident that together we can not only reduce the impact but actually obtain an overall positive net benefit for biodiversity at HeidelbergCement quarries all over Europe”, said Dr. Marco Lambertini, Chief Executive of BirdLife International.
“Through the unique BirdLife structure of national and membership based nature conservation organisations across the whole of Europe, we will be able to support action at site level while maintaining an overall strategic oversight. I am confident that the outcomes of this collaboration with HeidelbergCement will prove to make a real difference in fulfilling the potential many quarries hold for biodiversity.”
The co-operation is initially scheduled to last three years. In the first year, a biodiversity strategy for the partnership will be developed jointly. The strategy will also include goals for the protection of species and habitats. In the second year, joint biodiversity projects will be formulated in different countries. Local management, in particular, will be involved, alongside the national partners of BirdLife International. From the third year, the first pilot projects in Europe will then be implemented and documented.
About HeidelbergCement
HeidelbergCement is the global market leader in aggregates and a prominent player in the fields of cement, concrete and other downstream activities, making it one of the world’s largest manufacturers of building materials. The company employs some 55,000 people at 2,500 locations in more than 40 countries.
About BirdLife International
BirdLife International is the world’s largest partnership of national civil society nature conservation organisations and the world leader in bird conservation. It holds a large grassroots membership, in 117 countries and territories. BirdLife works to conserve wild birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, by working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources. Within the framework of its global strategy, BirdLife seeks to work together with business towards sustainable use of natural resources. BirdLife particularly wants to engage where the partnership's unique structure and skills can make a special contribution.
www.birdlife.org
About BirdLife Europe
BirdLife Europe is the European Division of BirdLife International and is one of the six BirdLife regional offices around the world. Stichting BirdLife Europe supports the European and Central Asia Partnership of BirdLife International, which consists of 45 independent, grassroots civil society organisations, governed by a democratic programme.
4,433 characters
