The cement industry in Spain has increased its social investments in the communities where it operates its 32 plants by 79 per cent to EUR5.2m in the last two years, reports the Spanish cement association, OFICEMEN.

The findings were published in the latest Study on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the cement sector, which has been carried out on alternate years since 2014 by the Cement Labour Foundation and the Environment (CEMA Foundation), in collaboration with Forética.

Given the last period analyzed (2019-2020), the data from this latest study also reflects the strong involvement of the cement industry as a whole during the worst moments of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Since the start of the COVID crisis in March 2020, more than 130,000 people have benefitted directly from social actions carried out by the sector. The history of the relationship with the local communities was a determining element, which allowed the cement groups to understand very quickly the needs faced by vulnerable groups and to have the internal structures to execute the projects in an agile manner, thus achieving results of high impact. The donation of food, basic necessities and medical and sanitary materials, such as masks or sanitizing and disinfectant products; direct financial aid, or collaboration in carrying out disinfection tasks with various public institutions, were just some of the actions carried out in the context of the health emergency,” says OFICEMEN.

However, some findings were not pandemic-related and reflect the work of the sector, according to OFICEMEN. For example, the share of permanent contracts has ranged between 90-95 per cent in the seven-year history of the study – among the highest in Spain. The report also highlights a drop in CO2 emissions, particulates and NOx emsisions.