Lafarge Africa, Dangote cement recognised for Prioritizing environment, renewable energy

Nneka Nwogwugwu

Lafarge Africa Plc and Dangote Cement have been recognised separately for prioritising environmental sustainability and energy transition in their company’s policies.

Lafarge won four different awards for its contributions and achievements in sustainability and environmental performance, as well as its commitment towards gender inclusion and diversity in the workplace.

The company received the award for Sustainability Reporting at the 2022 NGX Made of Africa Awards in February.

The award for leadership in sustainability reporting was presented to Lafarge Africa for demonstrating leadership in sustainability.

Lafarge Africa also bagged the Eco-friendly Cement Manufacturing Company of the Year Award at the Environmental Sustainability Conference, Expo, and Awards (ECOSEA) 2022.

The company’s Head, Sustainability & Corporate Branding, Titilope Oguntuga, also emerged as ‘Environmental Sustainability Professional of the Year’ (Extractive Industry) at ECOSEA 2022. The firm was also honoured with the ‘Most Outstanding Company in Gender Inclusion’ (Extractive Industry) at the

Women in Marketing Communications Award (WIMCA) 2022.

The firm was also honoured with the ‘Most Outstanding Company in Gender Inclusion’ (Extractive Industry) at the Women in Marketing Communications Award (WIMCA) 2022.

Lafarge Africa was presented the award for being at the forefront of promoting inclusiveness in the workplace.

Commenting on the awards, the Head of Sustainability & Corporate Brand, Lafarge Africa Plc, Titilope Oguntuga, said: “We are delighted to have won these awards. These recognitions are a testament to our commitment towards building a more sustainable Nigeria and an acknowledgment that building progress for people and the planet remains at the forefront of our business and sustainability agenda.”

“As evidenced by our performance in 2022, we continue to be at the forefront of providing green building solutions and will seize the opportunities ahead to drive innovation and create solutions that will accelerate our journey to a greener and more inclusive world,” Oguntuga said.

In another development, Dangote cement on the occasion of planning the commemoration of World Earth day last year,  keyed into the global action, being championed by the United Nations, to reverse the trend and invariably turn the waste materials hitherto thrashed into wealth for the benefit of the people and good of the society.

The company set up a team comprising of sustainability, alternative fuel and health and environment experts to drive the efforts.

The company made this known in a statement signed by Mr Francis Awowole-Browne, Corporate Communications Officer, Dangote Industries Ltd.

The team embarked on sensitisation visits to some identified locations with abundance of the renewable energy sources across the country to enlighten the stakeholders in the value chain, on ways and means to preserve the waste for use as alternative fuel and economic empowerment.

This was the mission to Ikire, in Osun state, South west Nigeria, where large deposits of Palm Kernel Shell (PKS) are mostly burnt as a waste because it is seen as having no economic value.

On arrival, the Dangote Cement team led by Peter Anagbe, Head of Alternative Fuel Project (AFP) and Dr. Igazeuma Okoroba, Head of Sustainability in company of others watched curiously the procedure involved in extracting palm oil from the fresh palm fruit with the use of a combination of manual and local technology.

Anagbe, said; “This is one of actions being taken by the Dangote Cement management to migrate to alternative fuel as a sure way of addressing the climate change occasioned by the depletion of biodiversity and destruction of the ecosystem.

Moved by the native intellectual ability deployed for the palm oil milling, the team began to probe into the villagers understanding of the PKS as a waste.

The head of the milling site, Hameed Adekunle, who though is not well versed in western education, was quick to explain how so much of the waste collected over time had occupied the space needed for palm milling convenience and had to result to burning the heaps of the shell.

This, according to him, they have been doing for years. It was at this juncture that the Dangote cement officials explained their mission to their hosts.

The team further clarified its mission, which is, to preserve the environment and a task in which the PKS collectors are critical stakeholders, it somewhat sounded quite paradoxical to the millers that the team actually came not because of palm oil but for the PKS.

Okoroba explained that the environmental sustainability is a call to duty to conserve natural resources and protect global ecosystems to support health and wellbeing, now and in the future. And if action is not taken fast, the climate change as being experienced now could affect the sourcing of alternative fuels. This is the reason we are visiting.