Environmental and Societal Impacts. It is acknowledged that cement industry should combine financial performance with a commitment to social responsibility, increasing its Sustainable Development (SD). The current SD profile of cement production can be summarized as follows: • On the one hand, cement production raises a number of sustainability concerns. It consumes large amounts of energy and resources, emits dust and other pollutants, disturbs large tracts of land during quarrying, and generates greenhouse gases. • On the other hand, the cement industry contributes to society by providing one of the most relevant commodities for infrastructure and multiple sectors. A number of leading cement companies already have begun to demonstrate that they can improve their business even through the integration of SD. For example, environmentally friendly practices, such as use of wastes as raw materials and improvement in energy efficiency, can contribute to reduce operating costs, while open engagement with local communities and other stakeholders to support better quality of life can lead to improved company image and right to operate, which ultimately lead to strategic advantages. As a summary, the cement industry situation is comparable to that of other industries that rely heavily on resource extraction and energy consumption: despite many points of excellence, the sector is not yet fully contributing toward sustainability in the regions where it operates. Further, while environmental performance is in the spotlight, stakeholders have also expressed concern about social and economic performances (for example, cement has recently had the exemption from ETS – Emission Trading System - auctions to avoid the so called carbon leakage, namely the moving of production sites out of Europe ). At a minimum, cement companies will need to address their vulnerabilities, but the cement industry has some unique opportunities to capitalize on its strengths in the area of industrial ecology, which involves exchanging resources with other industries to mutual benefit. The following graphics summarizes the important issues confronting the cement industry. Eight key issues have been identified, defining a PESTLE analysis, which represent the main areas in which the cement industry can contribute to SD.23 23xxxxx://xxx.xxxxxxxx.xxx/Portals/1/Repository/Pubblico/Area%20Tecnica/Pubblicazioni/Toward_a_Sustainable_C ement_Industry.pdf?ver=2018-06-19-120110-210 The cement industry has pursued strategies to reduce CO2 emi...
Environmental and Societal Impacts. The iron and steel industry are one of the biggest industrial emitters of CO₂, accounting for around 2.8 Gt per annum of CO₂ emissions globally, about 8% of global energy system emissions. If the business scenarios remain as usual, the emissions could rise to 3.1 Gt per annum by 2050, with the growth in global steel demand driven by regions that are more unlikely to make significant progress on the decarbonization front. However, the growth of emissions and the balance between different countries will be strongly driven by the changing mix of different production processes: in fact, to date, average BF-BOF furnaces produce emissions of about 2.3 tonnes of CO₂ per tonne of steel produced, DRI with gas as the input produces about 1.1 tonnes, EAF about 0.4 tonnes and less still if the electricity used comes from zero-carbon sources.74 Considering these values, and the specific weight of each technology in the steelmaking in the EU-28 (see Table 19Table 19: EU 74 “Reaching zero carbon emissions from Steel”, Energy Transitions Commission (ETC), 2018. xxxx://xxxxxx- xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx/xxxxx/xxxxxxx/xxxxx/XXX_Xxxxxxxxxxxx_Xxxxx_-_Xxxxx.xxx
Environmental and Societal Impacts. Ceramic in general is subject to ETS as intensive emitting industry. Indeed, the bricks and roof tiles, refractories and wall and floor tiles sectors together emitted a total of 19 Mt CO2 in 2010. Of these emissions, 66% were due to fuel combustion, with electricity and process emissions accounting for 18% and 16% respectively87. Literature values of specific emissions for the conventional production of ceramic pigments (CP), (assuming natural gas providing 1.5 kWh of thermal demand for producing 1 kg of CP). In the last two decades, significant reductions in energy consumption have been made during production, for example, through better kiln design and more efficient firing. Energy-saving innovations and materials technology have focused mainly on replacing solid fuel with natural gas, scaling up and improving the efficiency of kiln technology, and moving, where appropriate for the scale of operation, from intermittent (batch) to continuous (tunnel or fast-fire roller kiln) technology. The ceramic industry is continuously improving its energy efficiency where economically viable. The energy used to produce the bricks for a 1m² brick wall decreased by 39% from 1990 to 2007. For one tonne of wall and floor tiles, the energy used decreased by 47% from 1980 to 2003. By changing from a twice-fired process at conventional firing temperatures to a single firing process at reduced firing temperatures, one UK hotel tableware producer reduced emissions by 79% compared with similar products. High-performing and durable ceramics must be fired at high temperatures. As such, the most energy-intensive process in ceramic manufacturing is kiln firing and, in some cases, the drying and shaping processes.
