Environmental sustainability

The extraction of raw materials has an impact on nature, changing landscapes and natural habitats. Responsible land management is therefore an essential element of the Heidelberg Materials sustainability strategy. We are committed to working towards the Global Goal for Nature, contributing to a nature positive future.

Nature positive means stopping and reversing biodiversity loss in order to ensure a global net gain for the planet and see it on the road to recovery. In simple terms, there should be more nature by 2030 compared with 2020. Companies such as Heidelberg Materials can play their part in halting and reversing biodiversity loss by addressing their own impact on nature and implementing measures that achieve positive results for nature and outweigh their negative contributions.

As a business reliant on the extraction of raw materials, we acknowledge our impact and accompanying social responsibility. Our quarry development activities – sustainable extraction methods, reclamation/restoration, and intensive cooperation with nature conservation groups – take account of nature. For many years, we have been committed to protecting and preserving native animal and plant species.

At the core of our strategy is a deep understanding of our footprint, where negative impacts may occur, and how we can positively contribute to countering biodiversity loss. Working across five continents, we strive to understand the environments in which our sites are located and the species with which they interact across the whole quarry life cycle, so that we can set out key actions.

Numerous scientific studies demonstrate that active quarries can be extremely valuable to nature. They offer a wide variety of habitats, including undisturbed biotopes that are rarely found in today’s developed landscapes, which support many endangered and/or protected species, such as the sand martin, the yellowbellied toad, the eagle owl, or the Eurasian otter. And they are not just home to larger animals. Our quarries also provide habitats for a range of pollinators including a number of butterflies, solitary bees, and other threatened insects. For this purpose, it is important to protect spontaneously created natural areas within active quarries in addition to integrating biodiversity features into post-extraction reclamation plans.

Post-extraction reclamation also offers significant opportunities to create critical habitat types that support numerous flora and fauna and has the potential to increase the ecological value of sites and their surroundings. To build on the positive impact our biodiversity management and reclamation efforts can deliver, we work closely with nature conservation organisations, local authorities, and neighbouring communities to make an important contribution to restoring biodiversity.

To truly move from biodiversity loss to gain, a concerted effort is needed by everyone, working together at landscape scale. Nature knows no boundaries, and this needs to be reflected in collaborative actions. Partner organisations assist us in understanding and minimising our impact on the environment, helping to promote biodiversity at our quarries and in their surroundings.

Since 2011, we have greatly benefited from working with the largest global nature conservation partnership organisation, BirdLife International. As we mark over a decade of mutual efforts, we are pleased to share that this collaboration will continue to grow, with the recent renewal of our Memorandum of Understanding. This renewal not only celebrates a 12-year partnership but also sets the framework for another three years of joint commitment toward environmental stewardship and biodiversity. BirdLife International and its national partner organisations help us maximise the role our extraction sites can play for biodiversity by imparting knowledge, sharing best practice, and working on the ground with our operational staff to engage and empower them. This collaboration provides opportunities to demonstrate a halt in the loss of biodiversity through better protection and management at local (site), national, and international levels and reverse the trend by increasing scientific knowledge about the high biodiversity value of quarries in order to ultimately result in a significant contribution to habitat and ecosystem restoration.

As a unique initiative in the building materials industry, the Quarry Life Award is an integral part of the Heidelberg Materials sustainability strategy. The research and education competition supports our approach to innovative biodiversity management, promotes research, and engages stakeholders worldwide.

Researchers, university students, and non-governmental organisations as well as members of our local communities are invited to develop and – provided they qualify to participate in the competition – implement ideas for biodiversity-related projects at our company’s quarries worldwide.

Heidelberg Materials uses the award-winning projects as a basis for developing best practices for quarry management, which are then rolled out globally. In this way, we want to promote the evaluation of the quarries’ ecological value and support the development of new methods that benefit scientists, government authorities, and our company as well as nature.

The fifth edition of the Quarry Life Award was launched in May 2021. Heidelberg Materials opened its quarries and gravel pits from January to September 2022 so that the selected projects could be implemented. At the end of 2022, the winners were awarded at national and international level.

The ever-increasing consumption of water worldwide and competition for the limited resources available are leading to global water stress. Heidelberg Materials recognises the importance of efficient water management and conservation, which is why it has a globally applicable Water Policy.

We use water in various ways, from washing gravel and sand to cooling and cleaning transport vehicles. It is also one of the source materials used in concrete manufacturing and becomes part of the building material in the production process. We obtain some of the water we use from the public water supply, but the majority comes from our own approved well systems or from rivers and lakes. The use of rainwater and recycled water in cleaning and production processes is also becoming increasingly important. Some of the water – the water used for cooling, for instance – evaporates and is released into the atmosphere. The cleaning water that accumulates when transport vehicles are washed is fully recycled. We dispose of the domestic wastewater accruing at our company buildings via the municipal wastewater systems.

Heidelberg Materials has committed itself to minimising the impact of its activities on the limited natural resource of water to the greatest possible extent. We comply with stringent environmental regulations to ensure that our raw material quarrying does not endanger local bodies of surface water or groundwater resources. All direct withdrawals are heavily regulated and closely monitored by governments worldwide. The local operating permit at each plant specifies the allowable amounts of water extraction and recirculation.

We systematically identify and classify potential water pollutants. We also carry out stakeholder analyses and risk assessments as part of our water management plans. Water quality is tested, usually in external laboratories, by taking regular water samples. In addition, there are on-site measures aimed at monitoring the water temperature, for example. These measures comply with local permit requirements and regulations as well as global reporting obligations.

We want to conserve water and minimise negative impacts through measures aimed at saving water and using it efficiently. This objective can be achieved by using rainwater, taking advantage of reuse and recycling technologies, or working with local communities on water-related projects. We acknowledge that access to clean water and sanitation is a human right and have implemented the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s WASH Pledge for access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene at all production sites.

Responsible use of water is also part of our Sustainability Commitments 2030. We want to introduce water management plans and water recycling systems at 100% of our locations in regions affected by water scarcity by 2030. To this end, we have systematically categorised our plants using the World Resources Institute’s Aqueduct tool. We use a water reporting system based on the GCCA guidelines at all of our company’s cement plants. We work continuously to reduce our consumption of fresh water, for example, by switching to closed cooling circuits and recycling systems. We have also started to introduce measurement systems and key figures on water reporting in our aggregates and ready-mixed concrete business lines.

As a result of climate change, environmental risks are arising more and more frequently – including those connected with water. While working to reduce our consumption of fresh water worldwide, we take local conditions into account in the implementation of specific water management measures. The particular conditions in each region in terms of factors such as climate, water resources, population growth, and economic development influence the availability and use of water. We therefore rely on individual approaches tailored to the respective locations in order to reduce water consumption as far as is economically and technically possible. We take a local approach to facilitate participation and involve key stakeholders such as communities, businesses, and governments in the development and implementation of water reduction initiatives. This enables better matching of targets and measures to local conditions. Our plant-specific water management plans help us to identify and address water-related risks at an early stage. As at the end of the 2023 financial year, 58% of our aggregates sites in areas suffering from water scarcity had implemented water recycling systems, while in the cement business line, this figure had already reached 83%.

Because we are facing a water surplus in other regions of the world, where we need to pump off large quantities of water in order to operate our quarries, it does not make sense to define a general global reduction target for the Group based on quantified water withdrawal rates. After the first Group countries developed and introduced water management plans as part of a pilot project in 2022, the 2023 water target was rolled out to all locations worldwide. Priority is given to regions affected by water scarcity, water stress, and other physical risks associated with water. The majority of our production sites worldwide already have water recycling systems. In order to guarantee efficient water use and reduce the demand for fresh water in the long term, it is our intention that all Heidelberg Materials plants will use water recycling systems by 2030.