Environmental Commitment

Cemstone’s commitment to the environment helps define our culture and guides our business. Cemstone strives to adhere to all environmental laws and to convey stewardship principles to all employees.  By developing sustainable practices while reconciling economic and ecological goals, we have already realized positive outcomes such as:

• Increasing Resource Productivity:  By using materials that “do more with less”, valuable resources are conserved.  For example, by increasing the use of fly ash (an industrial byproduct) in place of cement, material is re-used while the carbon dioxide emissions from cement manufacturing are reduced.
• Increasing Resource Recovery:  By finding a market for recycled materials, less cost and space is needed for the disposal of “waste”.  Leftover concrete brought back to Cemstone plants is dried and crushed into a recycled base fill material. Cemstone has several locations across Minnesota and western Wisconsin that accept old concrete for processing.
• Energy Conservation: Cemstone administers an extensive energy audit of its facilities to identify ways to conserve resources and cut costs.
• Recycling and Re-use of Process Water: Cemstone has constructed weir recycling structures at several of its batch plant facilities.  As the industry’s #1 environmental concern, Cemstone is committed to find innovative practices for the treatment and re-use of process water.
• Dust Control: Dust and particulate matter (PM) are common sources of pollution in the concrete manufacturing industry. At its metro area ready mix and bagging plants Cemstone employs a high performance sweeper to meet strict emissions requirements.
• Habitat Restoration:  Long-range future planning for Cemstone’s sand & gravel operations is crucial to ensure good returns on the property as well as promote stable environments with native vegetation.
• Environmental Management System (EMS):  Through continual improvement of best management practices (BMPs) during site visits, Cemstone is able to maintain a strong environmental management system with documentation in site-specific environmental folders that record all environmental efforts at each location.
• Environmental Design:  Designing environmentally-sound sites, with the use of pervious concrete and closed-loop systems, reduce water runoff and minimize energy costs.