BUSINESS: 295 PRACTICES
Heracles Group is Greece's largest cement producer and has been serving the market for more than 100 years. The Group is operating in the industry of cement production and marketing, aggregates and concrete in Greece and in more than 20 countries.
Read more: www.lafarge.gr
Monitoring and minimization of the impacts of HERACLIS Group's activities on biodiversity, optimal management of restoration programs and conservation of biodiversity.
This program is implemented with the primary purpose of monitoring and protecting biodiversity without directly addressing any public. However, potential audiences include the local authorities and members of the local society (citizens), the country's environmental authorities, Non-Governmental Organizations / Non-Profit Organizations with an environmental purpose, as well as any other social partner interested in the company's environmental performance.
The evaluation of the different habitats started in 2019 and will continue for the next 2 years.
At the HERACLIS Group we systematically monitor our effects on biodiversity and take care to minimize them.
In 2019 & 2020, significant progress was recorded regarding the protection of biodiversity in the activities of the HERAKLIS Group, as the recording of biodiversity in the aggregate quarries of Central and Western Greece was completed, with the application of the BIRS (Biodiversity Indicators Reporting System) tool-protocol Biodiversity Indicators Report).
The BIRS protocol has been developed by an independent panel of experts in collaboration with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), while LafargeHolcim is the first company to implement this tool worldwide.
The BIRS protocol will be used to document positive change by assessing the evolution and condition of a site from year to year (eg taking into account the size and quality of each habitat). This indicator system does not measure the absolute value of biodiversity, but shows relative changes over time.
The goal of the HERACLIS Group is to complete the implementation of BIRS, in all the Group's quarries, by the end of 2020. In this way, it implements its plans for biodiversity management in all mining areas, while at the same time protecting both the environmentally important areas, as well as the historical findings discovered during the creation of the projects and quarrying operations.
BIRS takes into account the area of each habitat type found at a site, the ecological status of those habitats, including enhancements and threats, and the uniqueness and ecological importance of each habitat in the wider local/regional context.
The HERACLIS Group has 9 aggregate quarries and 9 A' cement quarries, while it started the implementation of BIRS by identifying the different habitats that exist in its quarries (for example forest, woodlands and bushes, bare rocks).
In addition, the Group continues to implement a number of practices to protect biodiversity and restore quarries, such as the gradual reduction whenever possible of grades to 5 meters, changing the final slope to improve both the reshaping and the visual effect and the creation of nurseries for the supply and completion of the rehabilitation plan of all quarries with trees and shrubs of local flora.
In order to protect the habitats, quarry restoration projects were carried out, as provided by the relevant approvals of the environmental conditions for each quarry.
Finally, the continuous monitoring of the possible impacts on biodiversity was done with the collaboration of special independent experts and with local partners, implementing a "biodiversity management program for quarries with high biodiversity sensitivity". In this way, in 2020 there was a reduction in the impact of quarries in the areas where they operate and a simultaneous increase in the total number of species found in their areas.
Through the BIRS assessment, HERACLIS Group has achieved improved monitoring of impacts on biodiversity and their minimization. It is worth mentioning that the general results of the studies prove that despite the operation of the HERACLI Group units, there has been no alteration in the character and habitats that host them.
Biodiversity recording with the application of the BIRS protocol was carried out in the quarries of aggregates of the HERAKLIS Group in Central and Western Greece.
The HERACLIS Group implements the BIRS (Biodiversity Indicators Reporting System) protocol, which has been developed by an independent panel of experts and in collaboration with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). .
The progress achieved is monitored through the BIRS protocol and controlled by the company's employees, while at the same time the company's employees and executives have the possibility of immediate information and follow-up on issues related to biodiversity management.
Through the BIRS assessment, HERACLIS Group has gained a better understanding of the conditions of the habitats in which it operates and can consequently better manage their restoration programs. In this way it achieves better results in the protection of biodiversity, while at the same time it manages to maintain and enhance local biodiversity in the areas in which it operates.
