The association’s professional committees (safety & health, environment & climate change and technology & innovation) announced their goals for the global cement industry in the new year at the WCA’s 4th General Assembly Meeting in December, taking the opportunity to review progress made so far and set priorities for the year ahead.
Climate change, decarbonisation and sustainability challenges facing the cement industry led the agenda for the environment & climate change committee. The committee’s chair, Ashwani Pahuja (Dalmia Cement), outlined the key focus for 2021, which will be on accelerating sustainability through addressing energy
efficiency, alternative fuels, digitisation, CCUS, and promoting low carbon cement and concrete. The committee also intends to seek commitments from progressive companies towards zero/low carbon cement production.
Wang Kedong (CUCC), chair of the Technology & Innovation Committee, presented a technology roadmap covering several key priorities, including reducing emissions and energy consumption, green product innovation, ‘Industry 4.0’ and digitalisation.
The committee will also be working closely with the PEGASUS 2020 programme, offering expertise on WCA benchmarking and performance improvement initiatives.
The safety & health committee introduced a series of initiatives for 2021, ranging from COVID-19 support and preventative measures, to managing high risk activities such as energy isolation and traffic safety. Anil Raman (YTL Cement, Malaysia), committee chair, also expressed their ambition to create an anonymised incident database, collected from WCA members to share learnings, in particular on how to avoid high risks incidents and how to most effectively share best practices.
“This has been a very challenging and unpredictable year for our industry, and we have all had to adapt and find new ways of working,” said Ian Riley, WCA CEO. "In this context, I’m especially pleased with how our professional committees have continued to work together effectively to tackle some of the sector’s key issues.
"They successfully launched a comprehensive agenda, including new initiatives and member benefits, and we look forward to building on that work next year, creating opportunities and sharing of knowledge for the benefit of all across the global cement ecosystem."
