Holcim plants bag eight awards for safe, eco-friendly operations

Cement manufacturer Holcim Philippines, Inc. again topped the Annual National Mine Safety and Environment Conference (ANSMEC) Awards Night as its plants took home eight awards including the highest honor for excellence in environmental management, safety and health, and social and community development.

Holcim Philippines’s plant in Lugait, Misamis Oriental received the Presidential Mineral Industry Environmental Award (PMIEA), while the company’s facilities in Bacnotan, La Union Norzagaray, Bulacan and Davao City received Platinum Awards, the second highest honor. It was the sixth straight year Holcim Philippines bagged the PMIEA. Its Bacnotan and Davaoplants received the PMIEA last year, while its Lugait facility won this in 2009.

Aside from these, the Lugait and Norzagaray facilities were first and second runners-up respectively for Best Mining Forest-Non Metallic Category, while the Bacnotan plant was a runner up for Safest Cement Plant Operation. Juanito Duron, a shift operations manager for Holcim Philippines’s Lugait plant, was named Best Mine Supervisor. The awards were handed out on Nov. 22 in Baguio.

Holcim Philippines CEO Ed Sahagun thanked the organizers for consistently recognizing the company’s commitment to responsible operations.

“I do commit that in the following years, our participation here will not just be to win awards but to share with companies who would like to learn from our best practices, and for us to learn from other companies,” he added.

Noting that the ANSMEC’s theme for 2013 is “60 Years of Giving Back,” Sahagun said the industry should do more to help in the rebuilding efforts of Visayas, which was recently battered by natural calamities.

“On behalf of Holcim Philippines, I’d like to appeal to everyone to at least give more to the victims of Yolanda and spend more for the rebuilding of Visayas. We have some experiences to share, and we’d love to share them with all of you on how we have to rebuild lives, for them to become hopeful that the future will be there. And they will start rebuilding, so they can live in a sustainable community,” he said.

The PMIEA was established in 1997 through Executive Order No. 399 in compliance with the policy that mining activities should be pro-environment and pro-people. Its selection committee is composed of the secretaries of the Departments of Environment, Trade, Interior and Local Government, Health, Science and Technology. The other members are the presidents of the Philippine Mine Safety and Environment Association, Philippine Mineral Exploration Association and Chambers of Mines of the Philippines.