Business & Environment
Bamburi Cement biofuel project, create livelihood for communities Neighbouring communities are involved in the fuelwood plantations, through employment, or small business opportunities. livelihood for communities
Shumuk committed to clean production
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humuk Aluminium Industries, the only aluminium rolling plant in Uganda understands that to ensure its survival and the survival of others, it must take care of the environment. And that is it is turning waste into high quality consumer products. Indeed, the company is basically a secondary producer of aluminium that involves the recycling of disposed waste aluminium components.
Women working on Bamburi fuelwood project.
Livestock grazing within the project
amburi Cement factory is located 10 kilometres north of Mombasa town. Three limestone quarries are situated in close vicinity to the factory, with some relatively small mining reserve areas.
of local communities in the fuelwood production project.
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Large limestone reserves are located in Vipingo and Diani. In Vipingo mining started in 2001, and the reserve is planned to last up to around 2050. In Diani mining has not started. Much of the reserve land is surrounded by poor, subsistence farming communities, or in the urban areas, by very poor informal settlements. Securing the large areas of reserve land is a challenging task. The need to secure the mining reserve land has been linked to Lafarge’s commitment to reduce CO2 emissions, and the increased interest for the use of alternative carbonneutral fuels. This has opened new opportunities for sustainable utilization of Bamburi’s large reserve land to be used to produce carbonneutral fuel for the cement kilns, as well as close cooperation with and integration
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The company’s efforts ensure that waste is turned into profits by recovering, recycling and re-using by-products and waste.
Besides the quarries around the cement factory, Bamburi holds considerable areas of limestone reserve land. These are areas to be quarried for limestone over the next 100 or more years.
Waste is reduced at each stage of the production process. Toxicity of all emissions and effluents are also reduced at the source during production. Raw materials, water and energy are conserved through improved process efficiency.
This land however is not supposed to remain idle during this time. In order to use it sustainably, tree plantations are being established to produce wood, which will be used in the cement kilns to substitute part of the fossil fuels with carbon-neutral wood fuel. In 2007, the first plantation was established and by 2013 the first wood harvest will be burnt in the kilns.
The company under its environment policy is happy to associate itself with World Environment Day and recognizes all treaties, declarations, ratifications, conventions and conferences that are in line with this day, particularly the Stockholm Convention and the World Conservation Strategy that link environment to development.
The fuelwood plantations are used as an opportunity to partner with local communities, an opportunity for integrated Corporate Social Responsibility.
Shumuk Aluminium Industries is committed to public health and safety of its staff as a big component of the environment. It protects workers from occupational hazards.
Many people from the neighbouring poor subsitence-farming communities are involved in the fuelwood plantations, either through employment, or small business opportunities■
The company’s products include cooking pots (sauce pans), kettles, frying pans, trays (sanias), milking products, aluminium windows, doors and sections, bottled mineral water as the latest innovation■
