The protection of the environment, the promotion of measures that make possible the transition of the sector to a Circular Economy in accordance with the EU Commission Action Plan and the improvement of public information on the environmental impact of the activity of the Cement industry are the main objectives of the Voluntary Agreement signed yesterday between the Generalitat and Ciment Català. This agreement, the third been subscribed after 2002 and 2011, establishes up to 48 concrete actions of prevention, reduction and control of pollution that have to be implemented in Catalan cement plants over the next 4 years. These actions range from the reduction of particulate emissions through fireplaces to energy efficiency, biodiversity and mobility, and also the use of waste as fuel.

With the agreement signed by the Minister of Territory and Sustainability, Josep Rull, and the president of Ciment Català, Salvador Fernández, Catalan factories are committed to working continuously for the improvement of air quality and also for transparency, giving information to society on the environmental impact of their activity. An action, this, that have been developing in recent years with the purchase and maintenance of stations and equipment to monitor the air quality in the locations where they are, and with the establishment of systems of constant dialogue with the different Groups of Interest.

The two signatories stressed the improvement in the efficiency of the resources that will entail the application of the new Voluntary Agreement and, especially, the benefits that will generate in terms of protection of the atmospheric environment. The first consequences of the agreement will be the launching of commissions and joint working groups intended to deploy it on the one hand and to initiate investments and the start-up of new infrastructures in the cement factories on the other.