Holcim contributes to Philippines progress beyond cement

By Horia Adrian

President and CEO of Holcim Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — This year, we are celebrating our second decade of using the Holcim name in the country.

During this period, we have established Holcim as among the best cement brands in the Philippines, supplying some of the most important development structures in the country.

But our contributions go beyond this important building material, and our continuing transformation into the leading player in innovative and sustainable building solutions enables us to make a bigger difference. Our goal is to deliver excellent business results and continue helping build progress to win with purpose.

We can deliver the most impact by helping accelerate the Philippines’ transition to low-carbon and circular construction. The World Bank estimates that the Philippine urban population will double to 102 million by 2050. This requires building a city the size of Manila every year. Building conventionally would have a massive environmental footprint, but we are ready with solutions that will enable the country to build more with less, build new from old structures, and use smart design and materials so progress is greener, smarter and for all.

Significant improvements in our operations enable us to provide green building options. Already, we have slashed our CO2 emissions by about 50 percent compared to the 90s and are prepared to do more by using alternative fuels and raw materials, shifting to renewable energy and electric vehicles, and raising operational efficiencies with digitalization.

We are embracing greener product formulations to provide partners with more eco-friendly alternatives for their building needs.

Green cements that deliver the same or superior building performance now account for 75 percent of our portfolio highlighted by the launches last year of our ECOPlanet and Optimo brands, the most environment-friendly options for general and vertical construction.

We are leading the way on circular construction, engaging policymakers and builders so the Philippines can build new structures from old. With the Holcim Group’s technical expertise, we are demonstrating how these practices can significantly contribute to the conservation of virgin raw materials as the country builds essential structures. We have even deployed to Manila Bay the marine plastic collection and research vessel Circular Explorer to serve as a platform for discussion and collaboration on this matter.

Finally, we are expanding our offerings of building solutions and approaches that can help address several social and environmental challenges in the Philippines. For example, we completed a program to help families strengthen their homes against extreme weather conditions with our low-carbon products. We are also exploring partnerships to deploy specially formulated concrete to accelerate marine life regeneration.

Aside from advancing sustainable construction, equally important to the Philippines is the wide-ranging positive impact of our operations. We are honored to be among the biggest employers and taxpayers in our communities helping uplift host localities. We are among the top recyclers in the country, assisting various industries and close to 70 local government units to manage their wastes in a safe and environmentally friendly manner by reusing these as alternative fuels in our operations. Unknown to many, we are an important partner of the agricultural industry by consuming rice husks and saw dust as low-carbon alternative fuels thus providing additional income to local farmers. With our strong health and safety culture, we are contributing to higher standards of workplace safety that help everyone who works with us to go back home free from harm.

We are prepared to continue investing in our operations and people to strengthen our ability to uplift the country.

We are confident that our sincerity to help build a better Philippines will help us attract like-minded partners that we can collaborate with for greater impact.