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Built to last

Cement is a basic building block of economic growth. Its manufacture also produces twice as many CO2 emissions as aviation. How Bertrand Collomb and industry giant Lafarge are laying the foundations for sustainable cement.

Lafarge has been a pioneer in this sector, but it’s not the only one to make progress. “Five years ago, the 12 biggest cement companies in the world decided to take joint action,” Collomb explains. “That was a real breakthrough because the development of benchmarks for the industry as a whole and the objective testing of that benchmark takes time and money. Initially, there was a lot of skepticism, but now each company has clear objectives. For Lafarge, CO2 emissions must be cut by 20 percent in 2010. We’re already at 16 percent at Lafarge, which is a real milestone.”

Collomb is visibly pleased his company is achieving measurable results. He believes Europe is an inspiring example. “Europeans simply need to accept that they have to take a somewhat less ideological stance on the environment in order to effect a global system that works,” he says.

And what about the U.S.? Collomb, who has a second home in America, says it isn’t politics but business that sets the tone for green thinking. “There is currently a rather strange situation in America: The environmental movement is strong. Every week I get piles of brochures from U.S. environmental groups. But at the same time, the environment has never been a significant election-campaign issue. Even when Al Gore was a candidate, he rarely brought up the environment because he knew it was not the issue that would get him elected. It’s really unbelievable, but it has to do with how the political campaigns are financed.”

According to Collomb, U.S. company heads are very environmentally aware—if only because they operate internationally and see that Europeans, in particular, consider this an important issue. “They often feel they are not bound to the official American political line,” he says. “There are, of course, always exceptions, including companies like Exxon Mobil that until recently had the audacity to contend that there was no such thing as climate change. Generally, however, players in the international business sector are much more aligned in their vision of the environment and sustainability than in international politics. The problem remains, however, that it’s a global problem and there’s still no organization that can set rules for every country. The World Trade Organization might be able to, and I actually think they will, but we need to be patient for a couple more years.”

Collomb emphasizes that China shouldn’t be underestimated as a partner on the path to a sustainable world. “Lafarge has a Chinese subsidiary. It’s impressive to see how quickly they’re changing. Five years ago, no one in China cared about climate change. Now, when a Chinese mission comes to Europe, there are only two things on their agenda: the social inequality between East and West and sustainable energy.”

As this diplomat of the international business community surfs through the sustainable future of the world, one question remains: Given his experience and vast network, surely he can play a role in ensuring issues like the environment and sustainability are high on the global political agenda? “I don’t think the business sector should lead the debate,” he says. “Ultimately, that’s something the political world needs to handle. But we can provide ideas and inspiration. Nowadays most companies link sustainable production and development with their own business activity. So sustainability has become an important topic for everyone, and that makes me optimistic.”

Collomb hastens to add that he’s an optimist by nature. “I think it’s ridiculous to say that people shouldn’t make full use of the technological possibilities available to them, because they will. The crucial question is, will they use them constructively or destructively? I think we want to develop ways to ensure that new techniques will benefit the world.

“We’re not on this Earth to discourage new development in order to protect the planet,” Collomb concludes, “but we must look for new ways to continue developing things that will be useful to the next generation. [French President Nicolas] Sarkozy recently said that this is the first generation that truly has a mission to save the next generation. And that’s the truth. For the first time in history, we humans realize that we hold responsibility for our own destiny. Until now, we had no sense of this. It is truly a historic change.”

Max Christern is editor of the Dutch edition of Ode. Peter van Dijk wrote about the silent garden in Orsan, France, in the July/August 2008 issue.

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