Honoree: Enterprise – Construction Industry

Company Overview

CEMEX is the second largest building materials company in the world. Their main headquarters is in Monterrey, Mexico, and their U.S. operation is headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company manufactures and distributes cement, ready-mix concrete, and construction aggregates worldwide. Outside of building materials, CEMEX works diligently to nurture the land they own and land nearby their operations to restore habitat and encourage conservation.

Sustainable Business Strategy

At CEMEX, reaching environmental excellence is the main goal of their sustainability model. Integrating sustainability into their business strategy, day-to-day operations, and decision-making processes is a key focus. They hone their efforts and resources on the issues that have the greatest impact on communities, offering significant contributions that benefit their neighbors while enhancing their business.

CEMEX considers its employees to be their greatest asset, as they are key to a successful and continuous sustainability program. Employees work to ensure that they are good neighbors, striving to be active and positive in the communities where they operate. CEMEX employees participate in a wide range of education projects and conservation programs year-round that align with the important needs and priorities of the local community.  These voluntary actions demonstrate the company’s continuing commitment to sustainability, as well as promote a culture of appreciation and respect for nature.

CEMEX invests directly into collaborative relationships to care for their natural resources, advancing their vision of “Building a Better Future for our people, our customers, our communities, and our shareholders”.

Environmental Stewardship

CEMEX attributes the success of its conservation efforts to outside collaboration, conservation partnerships, and several staff sustainability stewards. In Texas, CEMEX collaborates with universities, such as Texas A&M, local educators and students, conservation experts, and NGOs, along with a variety of governmental agencies to select activities that best meet the needs of the given region’s biodiversity challenges, ensuring they contribute to areas of greatest conservation need.

Internally, the following individuals are integral to the success of CEMEX Texas’ conservation efforts:

• Scott Ducoff, CEMEX, Regional President – Texas Region
• Billy Pat McKinney, El Carmen Land & Conservation Co., Manager
• Bonnie McKinney, El Carmen Land & Conservation Co., Wildlife Coordinator
• Lance Griffin, CEMEX, Director of Aggregates – Texas Region
• Janet Krolczyk, CEMEX, Environmental Director – Texas Region
• Adam Slusser, CEMEX, Balcones Quarry Operations Manager

Conservation Programs

 El Carmen Land and Conservation Company

CEMEX, in a partnership with landowner, Josiah Austin, owns  El Carmen Land and Conservation Company, LLC (ECLCC). This partnership formed to manage a landscape-scale conservation area along the Texas-Mexico border. The ECLCC lands are part of the Chihuahuan Desert ecosystem, which has a rich diversity of flora and fauna. The ECLCC’s mission is to retain the natural desert landscape and protect a vital trans-national wildlife corridor in the Big Bend Region by restoring native wildlife and birds to sustainable population levels. They do this through proactive land management, water development, and habitat enhancement.

ECLCC’s land and wildlife management plan for its 27,000-acre transboundary area includes strategies for desert lowlands, mountains, canyons, and six miles of the Rio Grande, and considers all species within.

This protected area is vital to reestablishing American Black Bear populations in West Texas and serves as a natural habitat and transboundary corridor for Desert Bighorn Sheep and Mule Deer. Ongoing habitat enhancement provides areas for migrating birds to rest and refuel during migration. ECLCC continues to work with several area landowners to help further protect and extend this corridor northward.

Past and Current Conservation Partners Include: Texan by Nature, Texas Bighorn Society, Wild Sheep Foundation, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation, International Assoc. Bear Research and Management, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of Interior, Big Bend National Park, Mule Deer Foundation, Texas Quail Coalition, Bear Trust International, Rio Grande Joint Venture-Chihuahuan Desert Ecoregion, Dallas Safari Club, Houston Safari Club, World Wildlife Fund, Lubbock Chapter of Safari Club International, United States Department of Agriculture and Natural Resource Conservation Service, Borderlands Research Institute, Sul Ross State University, University of Texas, El Paso, Whitman College, Tarleton State University, Texas Wildlife Association-Brigade Students, and Dallas Safari Club Ecological Foundation.

Balcones Dry Comal Creek Wildlife Habitat Center

In New Braunfels, CEMEX recently opened the Balcones Dry Comal Creek Wildlife Habitat Center to increase the site’s biodiversity, promote environmental stewardship, and provide educational opportunities for the local community. The center features a pollinator garden with native plant species, a vegetable garden, 10 acres of restored prairie with apiaries, birdhouses, native grasses, and wildflowers, and a new education building. This New Braunfels operation sits on approximately 3,000 acres within two ecological regions: Edwards Plateau and Blackland Prairie.

In total, 20 acres are managed for conservation at the Balcones Dry Comal Creek Wildlife Habitat Center. Wildlife and plant species beneficially impacted include monarchs, queens, swallowtails, and other butterfly species, Purple Martin, Eastern Blue Bird, hummingbirds, and various native grasses and wildflowers.

CEMEX Nature and Conservation Book Series

CEMEX also promotes global conservation through the CEMEX Nature and Conservation Book Series initiative that builds on its tradition of celebrating our planet’s great biodiversity and reinforces CEMEX’s commitment to work hard towards the protection of our natural resources. Since 1993, CEMEX has partnered with Conservation International and other prominent conservation partners to publish a new CEMEX Nature Book every year, illustrating strategies and diverse approaches to foster the protection of our natural world.   The 27^th volume published in 2019, Nature’s Solutions to Climate Change, concentrates on the integral connection between natural ecosystems and climate change; and features over 100 photographs by some of the most acclaimed nature and wildlife photographers in the world.

Building a Sustainable Future

CEMEX is committed to sustainability, biodiversity, and conservation. Currently, ECLCC is constructing and installing new wildlife water guzzlers on-site that will provide nearby wildlife with additional water sources. ECLCC has 18 water guzzlers with more added each year.

CEMEX incorporates the use of alternative fuels in their operations and participates in programs to cut energy usage and reduce emissions.  Over the last few years, several CEMEX facilities, including 12 Texas ready-mix facilities, have been recognized through the EPA’s ENERGY STAR® programs for as part of CEMEX’s commitment to conservation and sustainability by reducing energy consumption. Due to its continued efforts, CEMEX earned EPA ENERGY STAR®’s Partner of the Year Award in 2019. CEMEX strives to be a good neighbor in the communities where they reside and operate and are always looking for additional opportunities to conserve and enhance the environment around them.

Texan-Led Conservation

CEMEX’s products, including the ones manufactured in Texas operations, have been integral for the construction of major projects across the United States. Their operational footprint stretches from California through Texas and into Florida. Almost 15% of their U.S. workforce (more than 8,500 employees) is based in Texas. CEMEX has a strong system of operations across the state of Texas that includes a cement plant, 7 distribution terminals, the largest crushed stone quarry in the U.S. by volume, and more than 20 ready-mix concrete plants.  With CEMEX’s network and the state’s vibrant economy, Texas is a great place for the heart of CEMEX’s U.S. operations.

View CEMEX’s 2018 Integrated Report and the CEMEX Nature Webpage