holcim singapore

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he past six years have been very good to Holcim singapore and Dr sujit ghosh. its market share has

grown to almost double what it was in 2007 when he took over the role of cEo and Holcim’s brand image has been “strengthened dramatically”.

“when i took over we had low market share and the brand was relatively unknown,” he says.

there are several factors behind its success. a major one is an unrelenting focus on sustainability – Holcim’s vision to provide “foundations for society’s future and commitment to sustainable development”, continuously seeking “ways to promote sustainable construction through innovation”.

it’s a hell of a vision. and for Dr ghosh, it is much more than mere window-dressing.

He believes that by adopting sustainable practices, companies “can gain competitive edge, increase their market share, and boost shareholder value”.

what’s more, the “growing demand for ‘green’ products has created major new markets,” he says.

Before joining Holcim, Dr ghosh worked with Lafarge Asia-Pacifi c as regional technical Director and had a role in several other major multinational corporations.

Holcim singapore is a subsidiary of the swiss-headquartered Holcim group.

“our sustainability efforts are central to our core strategy,” he says. “apart from focusing on business growth, we also put a strong commitment to sustainability development. typically, companies have lofty visions and Holcim also has its own lofty vision – to be not only a profitable company but also take the interests of stakeholders at large into account. we’ve been talking the talk and walking the

walk, being named the leader in the Dow Jones sustainability index because of our commitments on sustainability and with co2 emissions control.”

last year Dr ghosh attended an event run by Harvard Business school called “innovating for sustainability” in Hampshire, England. something like 40 executives from 24 countries and many industries

attended and discussed items like how to avoid trade-off s between short term fi nancial and nonfi nancial performance improvements.

one of the many outcomes was the conclusion that investors of today are highly sophisticated, well informed, and highly demanding.

not only do they care about immediate fi nancial performance, but they are looking for business sustainability.

this of course was not news for Holcim. “we’ve long been aware of the

need to create value for shareholders in a way that creates value for other stakeholders as well,” Dr ghosh Continued

sustainabilityHolcim is one of the world’sleading suppliers of cement

and aggregates. it is also a leader in sustainability.

Writer Ian Armitage

Project manager James Mitchell

Apart from focusing on

business growth, we also put a strong commitment to sustainability development. Typically, companies have lofty visions and Holcim also has its own lofty vision – to be not only a profitable company but also take the interests of stakeholders at large into account”



explains. “But we are about more than simply saying sustainability is good business because it reduces waste or something like that or creating products that are green. it is much far-reaching and takes a long time for companies to develop and implement, and requires creativity.”

and nowhere is sustainability more important than singapore – partly because of its lack of natural resources and growing demand for green buildings.

“we look for win-win solutions that off er immediate value and provide a commercial advantage,”

says Dr ghosh. “asia is not going to decrease its demand to build, so we need to fi gure out how we can do more with less.”

last year Holcim opened a new centre of Excellence with support from singapore’s Economic Development Board with the aim of taking products at the research and development stage and turning them into commercial products saleable in asian market.

one such product is an eco-friendly high strength concrete that can decrease the amount of material needed for building projects.

Continued

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By exploiting the integration of m2m, cloud computing and location intelligence. we develop implementation strategy around each customer’s business objectives.

Having formulated our own engine for location intelligence and m2m, we provide customizable, practical & cost eff ective business solutions to help position our clients as market leaders in their own industry. our principal consideration is based on maximum effi ciency with increased productivity.

FinD (Fleet intelligent Dynamics) empowers companies to have full visibility of your company’s mobile assets.

Ximloc is a proprietary technology, which uses information from the cellular network (2g/2.5g/3g/3.5g/4g) to compute the user’s position.

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FinD. we aim to be a worldwide leading provider in Fleet + telematics system for Business solutions. it will incorporate all aspects in the entire value chain using spatial attributes as a system platform for m2m applications.

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Tel (65) 6259 6972Email [email protected]

Holcim centre of excellence (CoE)

f e a t u r e




“we are looking for innovations that reduce the carbon-footprint and make singapore greener but also off er aff ordable and value-added alternatives,” Dr ghosh says. “singapore is resource-hungry and is has begun to embrace the concept of ‘reduce, recycle and reuse’.

“we also have a Holcim Foundation for sustainable construction which has a diff erent board of directors, but still funded by the Holcim group. the Foundation promotes sustainable construction around the world by running competitions around the world.”

the Building and construction authority (Bca), which regulates singapore’s construction industry, has embraced Holcim’s approach and has even gone as far as far to amend building codes, while encouraging the use of materials that reduce the carbon footprint of buildings.“with the innovative ultra high-strength, high-performance concrete there are many benefi ts,” says Dr Ghosh who explains it, “saves resources because you can construct with signifi cantly lower volumes of concrete.”

Holcim supercrete Hs has a very low co2 footprint, low shrinkage, high durability and is easily placeble without vibration as it is self-levelling.

compared to normal high-strength concretes, its usage has the potential to lower concrete consumption by up to 50 percent.

“we launched supercrete Hs with the knowledge that singapore is a country that has a lot of high-rise buildings and has high per capita cement consumption. it is about building more with less. You can still build the same height building, the same size, but if you are using a higher strength concrete you are going to consume a lot less and that is important in a country that is so reliant on imports. and the idea stuck well in the minds of the

Opening the CoE building with

the Building and Construction

Authority (BCA)

Continued

Easecrete: High workability concrete

that ‘enhances project productivity’

High-strength concrete for skyscrapers

WAM GROUP BHM PTE. LTD

as a worldwide leader in developing and manufacturing equipment for bulk solids handling, wamgrouP® aims to consolidate its leading position in the building and construction sector through innovation that promotes sustainability and safety for concrete batching plants.

wam singapore, which represents wamgrouP® in singapore, malaysia, indonesia, Brunei and the Philippines is committed to provide advanced technology in order to reduce the environmental impact of concrete production plants in southeast asia.

thanks to constant product innovation and a vast knowledge of the building and construction sector, today WAMGROUP® is able to off er a variety of solutions to help the industry meet the challenge of sustainability.

the advantage of reusing aggregates from the mixing process has now become a must. consEP®, a concrete reclaimer developed by wam®, recycles concrete washed out from truck mixers or recovers concrete from moulds in precast concrete production minimising the environmental impact.

their expertise in manufacturing screw conveyors acquired over decades has enabled wam® to apply their technology to convey even the most diffi cult materials, such as fl y-ash or other industrial by-products used in concrete production.

clean air is an important element of sustainability, too. improving the quality of the air by reducing dust emissions from concrete batching plants is amongst the company’s chief concerns. wamgrouP® provides a unique range of silo vents, dust collectors and silo safety components which guarantee a safe environment in and around concrete batching plants.

For wamgrouP®, to partner with a global player such as Holcim in the asia Pacifi c region, has been an additional driver towards further innovation in the area of environmental protection and sustainable plant management. the benefi ts produced by this cooperation are tomorrow’s state of the art.

Tel +65 / 6753 25 33Email [email protected]

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authorities here. we are supplying some very high strength concrete to high rise buildings in downtown singapore which are going to be using less concrete, cement and aggregate. the imbedded footprint in those buildings is clearly going to be less because you are using fewer materials. that is an aspect of sustainability.

“Beyond that, we have launched other solutions, productivity enhancing solutions – one called Easecrete. it reduces the man-hours compared to that required with conventional concrete. all you have to do is take it to the site and pour it. and it is important in singapore

because of the drive to reduce the reliance on foreign workers.”

Eco-efficiency is at the core of Holcim’s business and it is making a real difference by promoting sustainable alternatives and greener production methods for cement, concrete and other building materials.

it is no stranger to using recycled materials in its products, for instance, and, prompted by the sand crisis, started using waste collected from singapore’s ship-repair industry in the making of its concrete as far back as 2007.

“we are excited by the future,” says Dr ghosh. “i’m an optimist and believe we all should be. i’m hopeful we will

Washed copper slag in plant


C O N S t r u C t I O N


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be able to continue on our journey towards sustainability and continue aligning ourselves with the broader sovereign policies of places we operate. i’m hopeful on that.

“in the future, construction will be moving underground and we are excited as to how we can play a role in that. singapore is crowded and there is a move to move its infrastructure underground which will open a whole array of opportunities.

“the future looks reasonably bright – we are focusing not just on profi t but running in the right way.”

Holcim singapore was established with the merger of national cement and Eastern concrete in 2004 and further expanded in 2010 with the amalgamation with Jcl Building materials (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jurong cement limited).

to learn more visit www.holcim.sg

We are looking for innovations

that reduce the carbon-footprint and make Singapore greener but also offer affordable and value-added alternatives. Singapore is resource hungry and is has begun to embrace the concept of ‘reduce, recycle and reuse’”

3a international Business Park #07-01/05 icon@iBP tower a 609935 singapore

tel: +65 6265 1933 Fax: +65 6268 4027

www.holcim.com.sg

E n q u i r i E stel (uk): +44 (0) 1603 559 151

tel (sa): +27 (0) 21 527 0053

[email protected]

s u B s c r i P t i o n stel (uk): +44 (0) 1603 559 144

[email protected]

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