OUR APPROACH TO SUSTAINABILITY This environmental policy, which is sustained by all concerned through proper communication and awareness, is documented, implemented, maintained and endorsed by the Plant Directors and circulated to employees, suppliers and other stakeholders. The Environmental Policy is reviewed every three years for continued suitability, thereby providing the basis for setting and reviewing environmental objectives and targets. Dangote Cement constantly strives to minimise the environmental impact in all its operations, from mining to cement production and distribution. In line with international practices, we have identified and implemented several measures to ensure sustainable objectives and goals. Some of these include: • Investments in state-of-the-art bag filters and electrostatic precipitators at all plants to ensure minimal dust emissions, making Dangote Cement one of the industry’s greenest cement companies not only in Nigeria but across Africa. Regular monitoring with action plans put in place to reduce emissions in accordance with national and international statutory control guidelines. • Use of different fuel options to minimise emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. Most of the captive power we consume at plants in Nigeria is generated using natural gas with options to use other fuel as backup. • Completely covered raw material and process conveyors ensure dust-free manufacturing. Similarly completely covered conveyor belts taking limestone from the mines into the plant minimise vehicle movement and are standard at our plants. • Impounded rain water around plant areas is used for cooling purposes and is completely re-circulated while wastewater is efficiently treated for further use or safe disposal. • Our reclamation strategy keeps the topsoil removed while mining for limestone. The reserved top soil is used to refill the mined lots with trees and grasses planted. We strive to restore the land used for mining purposes to its original state so that it may be used for agricultural purposes. 44 Annual Report 2016 Social investment Social investment is a key priority and Group-wide investments seek to: • Broaden opportunities for economic empowerment of host communities through support of local entrepreneurial initiatives including micro, small and medium enterprise development programmes that promote access to finance, business development services and access to markets • Improve health by building hospitals/health care centers, strengthening the quality of medical services, tackling malnutrition and improving access to safe water and sanitation • Promote quality education by building classrooms, providing books and equipping science laboratories, by improving access to high standards of basic education, through support for enhanced training of teachers and by improvements in the curriculum, by improvements in the availability of quality vocational and technical education in Nigeria to increase employment opportunities as they align with labour market demands, and by awarding scholarship to qualified individuals We realise that we play an important role in the local economy and consciously strive to support local businesses to service our local operations which in turn improves the lives and prospects of the local community. We prioritise relationships with all our stakeholders including our host communities and work with the community leaders to adequately address any Commissioning of the Solidarity Bridge for our local community in Senegal
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