Holcim marks World Environment Day

Holcim Lanka recently marked World Environment Day by educating its employees on the importance of living consciously and minimising the impact on the environment, aligning with the global theme 'Consume with Care'.

Environment Day activities at Holcim's Ruhunu Cement Works were launched with a beach-cleaning program with the Marine Environment Protection Authority. Forty Holcim employees, schoolchildren, teacher trainees and villagers worked as an activist group to help preserve the Dewata-Galle beach stretch. A green belt was set up in the clinker yard to minimise dust and noise dispersion.

The Colombo office's World Environment Day celebrations were held on the theme 'Consume with Care', to ensure that employees followed best practices in consumption during their day-to-day lives.

The entire office was transformed one week before World Environment Day, with each floor decorated as the lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and atmosphere, giving out information on the earth system to help employees realise the value of sustainable living.

"Environment Day is a reminder to show our gratefulness to Mother Nature, which sustains all forms of life. This is the day to focus our thoughts to make collective efforts towards protecting the environment. "I am happy to be a part of this worthy cause to educate our future generation and the community aligning with the 'Consume with Care' concept," said Gimhani Manushika of the organising team.

Employees were presented with a plant, with the message, 'A Plant is a gift that nourishes our lives', to impress upon them the importance of eco-balance. This was followed by an employee awareness program on the importance of consuming with care.

"Holcim Lanka is committed to sustainable development. As a producer, we stand for and wholeheartedly believe in, our values of Extended Producer's Responsibility (EPR) across the lifecycle of our product," said Head of Sustainable Development, Chalaka Fernando.

"We believe there is a lot of scope for producers to truly become ambassadors for sustainable living, and we hope this program addressed this. We can position ourselves as an EPR company as the CO2 content in the cement we produce is low," he said.

"It was great to see the enthusiastic participation from all employees to mark World Environment Day. Holcim really goes the extra mile to engage employees beyond work and cultivate values of social responsibility in them as well.

We hope that this initiative will plant a seed in the minds of employees and their children to conserve our planet's precious resources," said Manager, Recruitment and Organistional Development, Bernadine Fernando.