At the recently held Green Building Award Ceremony 2014, organized for the first time by the Green Building Council of Sri Lanka, Holcim Lanka Limited was awarded Green Labelling Certification for its Sanstha brand. The awards ceremony was held at the BMICH Colombo under the patronage of the Minister of Economic Development Hon. Basil Rajapaksa.

The objective of the award ceremony was to recognize and reward organizations who took the initiative to develop a sustainable environment through their organizations and product life cycle and Holcim Lanka has constantly been in the forefront of developing and producing products that are environmentally sustainable. The company’s Holcim Sanstha brand is the clear forerunner of this focus on environmental sustainability and reducing environmental impact, without any compromise in the quality of the product.

Speaking at the event, Hon. Patali Champika Ranawaka, Minister of Technology, Research & Atomic Energy said, “ Building construction is governed by many regulations. There are many codes and standards available for architectural, engineering and functional aspects of the building product. Some world standards like ISO 14001 regulating the environmental aspects and some new standards like ISO 50001 regulating energy aspects of buildings. But we need to have local codes and practices to cater our own issues and values.”

Minister Ranawaka further stated, “May be you all are aware that available rating tools for green concern on site, energy, indoor environmental quality, material use to name a few. When we concern on site we have many local control measures for erosion and to improve the ground permeability. Codes must refer to those and encourage our designers to make use of real or lasting sustainable measures. I hope and personally support Green Building Council of Sri Lanka to move in to this direction and prepare codes and standards applicable to Sri Lanka.”

Commenting on this latest accolade the Vice President Marketing & Sales - Holcim of Holcim Lanka Nalin Karunaratne said, “At Holcim, sustainability is not a mere slogan, but an important aspect of its corporate philosophy, starting from product development, quarrying, production, transport and extended to engineering and architectural solutions including application practices. It is a great honour for us to be recognized as the only Green Label Certified cement brand in Sri Lanka and are proud to establish industry benchmarks which strictly adhere to national and international industry standards.”

Holcim Sanstha significantly reduces CO2 emissions when compared to standard Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) resulting from the utilization of clinker substitutes. These additives contribute to reduce CO2 emissions whilst ensuring no compromise is made on quality. This type of cement also enables the highest strength and durability of concrete. Furthermore, Holcim cement is produced under environmentally optimized conditions, which focuses on a fuel mix employing alternative fuel methods. Thermal fuels, which are either carbon neutral or carbon reducing, are used for the production process thereby substantially reducing the entire carbon footprint.

Holcim is continuously engaged in developing technologies and techniques to reduce its carbon footprint, while adding value to the customer's needs in terms of time savings, investment cost reduction due to a more cost effective product and services facilitating ease of construction.

Photo caption: (From left) Nalin Karunaratne - Vice President Marketing & Sales - Holcim, Prof. Ranjith Dissanayake, Vice Chairman Green Building Council of Sri Lanka, Head Department of Civil Engineering, University of Peradeniya, Hon. Patali Champika Ranawaka - Ministry of Technology, Research & Atomic Energy, Hon. Basil Rajapakse - Minister of Economic Development and W.J.B. Shiromal Fernando, Vice Chairman Green Building Council of Sri Lanka.