Biodiversity in Good Company
In 2008, Germany hosted the 9th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CoP 9). On this account the 'Business and Biodiversity Initiative' was established as an international initiative within the scope of the German chairmanship of the 'Convention on Biological Diversity' (CBD). This initiative aimed to intensify the engagement of the private sector in achieving the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity by encouraging:
- Companies to incorporate the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity into their management systems by signing and implementing the Leadership Declaration.
- Companies to publish their best practices.
- Companies to actively take part in the Conferences of Parties (COP) to broaden the international profile of the initiative.
HeidelbergCement’ CEO, Dr Scheifele, took this opportunity to sign the 'Leadership Declaration on Biodiversity', initiated by major companies constituting the 'Business and Biodiversity Initiative'.
Through this signature, HeidelbergCement committed itself to act for biodiversity by:
- developing a policy on Group level, performance indicators, objectives, action plans
- appointing a biodiversity manager: Dr Michael Rademacher, member of the department ‘Global Environmental Sustainability'
- integrating biodiversity aspects in day-to-day management.
Our internal guideline for the implementation of Biodiversity management followed this signature in 2009 and pilot projects aiming at implementing biodiversity indicators and action plans in Europe have been implemented by our operating units.
These actions will continue to grow, so that HeidelbergCement can actually bring its stone to the fight against the ongoing dangerous loss of biodiversity.
