PCA names environmental, safety award winners

The Portland Cement Association (PCA) named the winners of its 2022 Energy & Environment Awards and Safety Innovation Awards.

According to PCA, the awards are given to companies that implemented outstanding environmental practices and forged exemplary relationships with communities where their cement plants are located. Submissions from plants across the U.S. were evaluated and recognized for environmental efforts completed in 2021.

“The accomplishments of these award recipients are extraordinary,” says Mike Ireland, president and CEO of PCA. “They put into perspective just how much PCA member companies care about the environment and, more importantly, the safety and well-being of their staffs and the communities where they work.

“These companies set the bar very high for themselves and are abiding by recommendations made in PCA’s Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality,” Ireland adds. “In some cases, they exceed them. They are doing all of this while manufacturing an essential, sustainable product that is a staple in construction projects across America.”

Energy & Environment Awards

PCA’s Energy & Environment Awards recognize companies in five categories: environmental performance, land stewardship, outreach, energy efficiency and overall environmental excellence.

Giant Cement Co.’s Harleyville Plant in Harleyville, South Carolina, received the award for environmental performance, while Buzzi Unicem USA’s Signal Mountain Plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, received the award for land stewardship.

Cemex’s Balcones Cement Plant in New Braunfels, Texas, received the outreach award, and St. Mary’s Cement’s Charlevoix Plant in Charlevoix, Michigan, was recognized for energy efficiency.

CalPortland Co.’s Oro Grande Cement Plant in Oro Grande, California, received the award for overall environmental excellence.

Safety Innovation Awards

PCA’s Safety Innovation Awards, meanwhile, are given to companies that developed innovative practices, projects and programs that improve safety at cement plants in the U.S. The award program communicates these ideas to all manufacturers and highlights the importance of safety programs – both inside and outside the industry.

Entries are judged in five areas: innovation, ease of use and ease of construction, effectiveness and risk prevention. Four projects received awards this year. Winners were chosen by PCA’s Occupational Health & Safety Committee and other independent cement industry experts.

CRH Ash Grove Cement had two plants receive awards for milling and grinding. The company’s Ash Grove Leamington Plant in Leamington, Utah, and Montana City Plant in Clancy, Montana, were recognized.

Receiving awards for general facility were The Monarch Cement Co.’s Monarch Cement Plant in Humboldt, Kansas, and Buzzi Unicem USA’s Nashville LSI in Nashville, Tennessee.