Expectation
A more comprehensive discussion on the impact of the global economic crisis on sustainability efforts, and about the impact of sustainability on the company’s financial performance.

Our response
The Panel’s point is noted. We would like to underline our Chairman and CEO’s comment that “Our commitment to sustainability remains solid despite the other issues we face”. The Report shows progress made to reduce impacts amid the current economic crisis, besides disclosing the annual financial investment to address environmental matters (page 40).

In our future reports we intend to better address the balance between financial and non-financial performance, including work to further interlink our annual financial and sustainable development reporting.

Expectation
A better description of how sustainability topics are managed throughout the global organization, highlighting where responsibilities lie.

Our response
Our current sustainability governance structure - which includes the Sustainability Steering Committee and safety, health, environment and social councils - is described on page 10 of the Report.

The integration of sustainability into our business management systems and line management responsibilities is an ongoing process. We are determined to ensure that sustainability becomes embedded and we are taking steps to ensure this happens. This includes the consideration of incentives that link personal rewards with agreed performance metrics.

In our future reports we will consider adding more detail to the description of our sustainability management processes and our efforts to embed related practices. In particular, we will disclose the number of people with direct responsibility for health, safety, environment and social practices globally.

Expectation
More information on the efforts to improve safety among employees and contractors.

Our response
CEMEX shares the concern of the Panel over the number of accidents. Resources have been allocated to two key initiatives to improve our safety performance.

First, a leadership training course – to be rolled-out during the next two years - for line managers and those responsible for the safety of others was developed. This is designed to increase focus on the provision of a safe environment and risk controls.

Second, we are improving driving standards as most of our accidents are related to our large fleet of vehicles.  Improving road safety is a challenge faced by our industry. CEMEX is leading the World Business Council For Sustainable Development (WBCSD) Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) task force set up to develop industry-wide standards for the safe operation of vehicles. New standards are expected by the last quarter of 2009 and their implementation will be a priority for all companies.

In our future reports we anticipate improvement of our safety performance and continued disclosure of safety training progress.

Expectation
Find ways to scale up low-income housing programs.

Our response
We are very proud of our Patrimonio Hoy program, which since its inception in 1998, has benefited over 224,000 families in four countries.  We continue to look for ways to maximize the benefits brought by this internationally-recognized program, especially during these harsh economic times. Moreover, we have developed other initiatives, such as the self-employment centers, through which we promote low-income housing self-construction.  We expect to report the continued growth of these programs in the countries where they have been established.

Expectation
Publish data on the impact of social contributions.

Our response
We agree on the importance of measuring the value of social projects. Our revised social investment guidelines include a number of key performance indicators to track results.  Furthermore, we intend to develop an internal rating system to measure the value of each initiative enabling us to rate their success. This will be in-house information that will help us focus on projects that contribute most to poverty reduction and local development.

Expectation
A clearer explanation on biodiversity performance and an outline of plans to protect biodiversity, including a discussion on protection of tropical forests as a cost-effective way to mitigate climate change.

Our response
We share the Panel’s concerns. Our work in this area is widely acknowledged by many in the international NGO community. Two years ago we signed a 10-year partnership with BirdLife International to map all quarries against key biodiversity areas, important bird areas, Natura 2000 areas and nationally-protected areas. This allowed us to identify sites that have a high potential to impact on ecosystems and areas of high biodiversity.

Our investment (resources and management time) will focus on high-risk areas, to ensure that during challenging economic times we maximize our impact. Hence, we are confident that areas that are most at risk will be adequately protected, and those sites without protection plans are in low-risk areas. Nevertheless, our commitment remains to have rehabilitation plans in place for all our active quarries by 2015. We will again examine the reporting of our efforts to protect biodiversity, to ensure that we are providing a fair picture of our work.

We agree that ecosystem-based mitigation and adaptation based on reforestation of forests will be a positive outcome of any global agreement to mitigate climate change and we favor the inclusion of grassland restoration in such an approach.

Expectation
Provision of company-wide data on energy use, and acknowledgement of the embodied energy and lifecycle burdens of concrete.

Our response
Our cement-making accounts for 88.6% of our energy use. We concentrate our energy-saving in cement production because it is where we can make the most material impact. That is why our data are focused on this segment.

Energy used in cement manufacture also accounts for a large portion of our direct costs, which is one of the reasons we constantly seek ways to reduce it. We also seek to reduce the CO₂ content of our products through:

1. Improving energy efficiency in cement plants.
2. Using alternative fuels and alternative raw materials.
3. Investing in renewable power.

For instance, the use of alternative fuels, such as domestic waste, provides both cost and carbon benefits. In 2008, our use of alternative fuels reached 10.3% of our total energy consumption.

There are many benefits in using concrete in the construction of buildings and infrastructure. We have participated in the WBCSD’s Energy Efficiency in Buildings project. Its research showed that 40% of the world’s energy is consumed in buildings, 82% of which is used after construction. Building design and choice of materials affects the amount of energy a building uses.

As we move into a carbon-constrained world, we are convinced that the unique properties of concrete (thermal, reflective and durability) will produce enormous net benefits for the planet. In our future reports we will consider increasing the amount of information provided on energy use, without compromising our competitive position.

Expectation
Normalized figures for waste generated and waste recycled.

Our response
Much of the by-product of cement manufacture is re-used. The rest of our operations produce comparatively little waste. However, the Panel’s query has prompted us to investigate the feasibility of measuring and reporting our total wastes.

Because concrete is such a widely used material, waste from demolition makes up a considerable portion of the world’s waste. When separated from the other building materials, concrete can be crushed and re-used as aggregates but this is costly, energy intensive and dependent on local building codes. The CSI studied opportunities to recycle concrete. The findings underline the many challenges, including cost and the fact that the cement and demolition industries are in different sectors.

We thank the panel for sharing their broad vision on waste and recycling. On future reports we will consider the range of metrics we publish from a materiality perspective, to enable our stakeholders to more easily compare our performance with others in our industry.

Expectation
More data on water use and conservation measures included in our management and reporting.

Our response
We are working to measure water consumption and plan to report these data in our future reports. In our current report, we already included the percentage of operations with water recycling systems.