Global cement, readymix and aggre-gate company Lafarge reorganised last year to transform from its previous product-line focus to a country-based organisation, strongly focused on local markets and customers.

“Implementing this structure will enable us to focus more efficiently on our customers and get closer to our markets. We will use the strengths of our different product lines to design solutions for our customers’ needs,” says Lafarge South Africa CEO Thierry Legrand.

The trend of urbanisation, prevalent in developed and developing countries, will not decrease and Lafarge aims to contribute towards building better cities.

“We have identified business opportunities from continued and accelerating urbanisation. Our goal – to contribute towards building better cities – also resonates strongly with our employees. They derive purpose from this overarching goal of the company,” he says.

“By contributing towards building better cities, we will sustain growth and improve the lives of people. It gives both meaning and clarity to our actions,” he notes.

Lafarge aims to work in partnership with its customers to provide contractors, engineers and architects with information on the modern uses of different cements, concretes and aggregates. This will result in the building of more efficient and environment-friendly buildings and structures, he highlights.

“We aim to use our knowledge gained from working on construction projects worldwide to provide best-practice advice for the construction sector,” adds Legrand.

The company invests about €116-milion a year in research and development, with its main research laboratory located in Lyon, France. In South Africa, Lafarge’s Quality Department of Southern Africa is a South African National Accreditation System-accredited laboratory with the knowledge and expertise to develop new solutions for customers.

Lafarge supplies cement, concrete, aggregate, gypsum and plasterboards. It has more than 90 sites in South Africa, including 50 ready-mix plants, 20 quarries and a large cement plant, in the North West, as well as grinding stations, plasterboard plants and gypsum plants.

The company provides Agilia, a self- compacting concrete that flows easily and does not need to be vibrated, which enables quicker construction times. Agilia Vertical provided the aesthetic and architectural facade of the Podium, in Menlyn, Pretoria. Hydromedia is a fast-draining concrete pavement solution that enables efficient stormwater management in urban areas.

The company is also providing ready-mix concrete to alternative energy wind and solar projects throughout South Africa.

“Lafarge wants to help build more beautiful, liveable and sustainable cities,” he avers.

Meanwhile, Legrand says only about 20% of a building’s total carbon dioxide is generated during construction, to produce the cement and build the structure, while the remaining 80% is emitted during the operational life of the building.

“We are applying all the traditional methods of reducing the energy required to produce cement, including energy efficient kilns and cement plants in South Africa, which are efficient when compared with plants worldwide. We try to use less limestone to produce our clinker and to use decarbonated lime, cementitious fly ash and slag to reduce clinker consumption for each ton of cement. We are using a lot of fly ash in South Africa, as it also requires less water during construction than traditional cement,” he notes.

“We are not using enough alternative fuels, such as biomass, waste oil and nonfinite sources, as an energy source to produce cement in South Africa, which is done in many countries worldwide, specifically in the European Union and the US,” Legrand concludes.