The CIF Sustainability Awards are the premier industry awards recognising the implementation of sustainability initiatives by the cement industry. The awards celebrate the achievements and encourage initiatives that support a future for Australians and our industry.

The Cement Industry Federation would like to thank the submission teams for their outstanding and inspiring projects, and congratulate the following award winners:

Emissions monitoring and reporting

Adelaide Brighton Cement – Gantry shed depressurisation project

Adelaide Brighton’s Birkenhead plant is located immediately adjacent to the residential area of Birkenhead and the Port River. Given the facility’s location, dust control is a key environmental performance indicator for ongoing operation. Based on concerns raised by residents and supported by Adelaide Brighton Cement’s internal investigation and monitoring process, the gantry shed used to store clinker, was identified as a major contributor of dust emissions from site. The gantry shed receives clinker virtually around the clock therefore the operation of the shed, understandably, makes for a dusty environment.

While a number of prior upgrades to a clinker storage shed had been effective, it became necessary to depressurise the shed. This required a sophisticated airflow modelling exercise to determine the correct sizing and placement for the additional dust collector units. Additionally, the dust collected by the system is returned directly to the cement mill, ensuring no loss of product. The entire project cost $2 million. Perhaps the most measurable post-installation improvement has come from the community itself. The residential community within close proximity of the Birkenhead Works has reported an improvement in the sites dust emissions performance by 66 percent.

Local Impacts

Cockburn Cement – Seagrass rehabilitation

Cockburn Cement, a wholly owned subsidiary of Adelaide Brighton manufactures cement and lime at its works at Munster, south of Perth. For many years, the company has sourced calcium carbonate for production from dredging shellsand from the Owen Anchorage, south-west of Fremantle.

However, rising awareness of the importance of seagrasses has triggered substantial research in to Seagrass rehabilitation. Cockburn has now invested more than $8 million in seagrass rehabilitation and research into the environmental impacts of its dredging operations since 1995 and has a current commitment of $350,000 per annum.

Through the research, the Seagrass Research and Rehabilitation Plan team has discovered the best way to grow and plant seagrass is for divers to hand plant each seedling. The team also found that after four years the marine life returns to the seagrass beds.

Reporting and Communication

Cement Australia – Mt Etna site rehabilitation

Decades of conflict over the mining of Cement Australia’s Mt Etna Mine site, stirred strong emotions from all corners of the Central Queensland community. Conservationists protested against mining on Mt Etna out of concern for the maternity site of the Little Bent Wing Bat and the potential destruction of various cave systems.

Recognition of the opportunity to do things better saw a new approach in recent years that drew conservationists, miners and the community together to develop a partnership approach in rehabilitating the site and educating and planning for its conservation future.

The Mt Etna Mine Site ran an innovative communications program commencing during the final closure of the mine in 2006. This program saw some 3,000 central Queensland families involved in a “Megafauna Fossils Open Day” and “Megafauna Mega Think Competition”, the success of which has provided a signal of the completed transition from the history of conflict associated with this site.

By engaging with all stakeholders and finding common ground through dedicated rehabilitation work, Cement Australia avoided continued and costly dispute while enhancing its reputation and building solid relationships with the community. An effective and sustained approach to maintaining communications with stakeholders has meant that Cement Australia’s social licence to operate is supported by the community in which it works.

Employee health and safety

Cement Australia Gladstone plant – Gladstone shutdown

In the cement industry, many high-risk maintenance activities are concentrated within a short down-time period – typically of the order of 30 days. This places huge demands on key individuals within the teams and high levels of stress and anxiety are the result.

For the 2006 shutdown of Cement Australia’s Gladstone plant, the project organisation was redesigned with a focus on alignment across all teams, risk reduction strategies, improved communications, personnel development and ownership. Using employee feedback from previous shutdowns, a strong focus was placed on selecting the right people to undertake the key roles within teams and providing coaching and mentoring for individuals.

By aligning the goals and objectives of the team members with that of the business and encouraging a strong sense of ownership towards their areas of responsibility, the teams were able to manage their individual accountabilities and maintain a high standard of performance. The shutdown was completed 4.5 days ahead of schedule, $1.4M under budget and with only two medical treatment injuries and 27 first-aid treatments for a project time of 83,000 hours.

Climate protection

Adelaide Brighton Cement – Low emission product for mining industry

Recently Adelaide Brighton Cement identified an opportunity to tailor a product for the mining industry that, while low in greenhouse gas emissions during the manufacturing phase, would meet the binding needs of underground backfilling of mined stopes.

Working in a co-operative partnership with BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam operations, Adelaide Brighton Cement, in 2005, embarked on an intensive project to develop a lower greenhouse gas emitting construction product – which today is marketed as Bulk Cementitious Binder (BCB).

BCB is produced from Portland cement clinker, natural gypsum and cement kiln dust and may contain up to 5% mineral addition. The BCB is proving its efficiency as a straight tonne for tonne replacement for general purpose cement and greenhouse emissions have been reduced by 5% on each application. To date, the partnership between Adelaide Brighton Cement and BHP Billiton to develop BCB has resulted in a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by more than 4,400 tonnes per annum.

Responsible use of fuels and raw materials

Blue Circle Southern Cement Waurn Ponds Plant – Industrial Ecology in the production of cement and aluminium

With the cost of natural gas approximately double that of coal, Blue Circle Southern Cement (BCSC) – Waurn Ponds has a significant cost disadvantage relative to plants that use coal as their principle fuel. Hence the continuing need to replace natural gas with low cost alternative fuels without detriment to the environment.

Traditionally, there has been no satisfactory reprocessing or reuse available for spent pot linings (SPL) from the Aluminium industry. This resulted in large quantities of SPL’s stockpiled in purpose-built sheds on smelter sites. BCSC worked together with Alcoa and Regain Services to develop a carbon waste fuel that’s manufactured from spent pot lining and anodes from Alcoa’s smelters
BCSC’s Waurn Ponds plant has now successfully tripled the use of carbon waste as an alternative fuel, improving local know-how and allowing their supply and technology partner to develop a new waste processing technology. The benefits are two-fold as Alcoa has solved its carbon waste problem in Victoria and BCSC is realising a natural gas fuel savings in the order of $1M per annum.