The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has partnered with the Lafarge Group in the Philippines to help minimise the cement industry’s growing ecological footprint.

Under the newly-forged partnership, WWF and Lafarge will conduct in-depth research to analyse the environmental impacts of blended Pozzolan cement over Portland cement which is the current industry standard.

With the hard data on hand, WWF and Lafarge hope to slowly drive a shift from Portland to Pozzolan cement.

WWF-International teamed up with the Lafarge Group in 2000 and since then has worked with the multinational to both increase its operational efficiency and reduce emissions.

By 2009, Lafarge reduced its emissions by 20.7 percent per ton of cement, mostly by shifting to renewable energy sources and by developing a new range of products which use additives and debris from other industries – such as Pozzolan or blended cement.