Lafarge Africa emerges most innovative in manufacturing at Businessday Awards
Lafarge Africa Plc emerged the most innovative in manufacturing at the Businesday Top 25 Most Innovative Companies and Institutions Award 2017 that took place over the weekend. The award was in recognition of the building solution giant’s development of alternative fuel supply and utilisation system to substitute the use of fossil fuel in 2016.
Receiving the award on behalf of the Company, Vipul Agrawal, Marketing Director, Lafarge Africa Plc said “We are very glad for this recognition. We just wanted to make a difference in line with the global sustainability roadmap of the LafargeHolcim Group and to give our stakeholders more reason to believe in our brand”.
He explained further that “our Biomass Alternative Fuel Feeding System which was commissioned on September 21st, 2016 is focused on developing an alternative fuel (primarily biomass) supply and utilization system to partly substitute the use of fossil fuels at our Ewekoro and Sagamu plant facilities. It has been quite successful and we are motivated to replicate it in our other operations”
Expressing the company’s feelings towards the recognition of its efforts, the Marketing Director assured that “It will encourage us to continue to create value to the communities that we serve”
Commenting on innovation as the bedrock of its operations, Mr. Michel Puchercos, Country CEO, Lafarge Africa Plc said “innovation is at the core of our businesses. We are committed to generating value for our customers and responding to the needs of our stakeholders in the markets in which we operate. Understanding our stakeholder needs and the way they use our products enables us develop truly innovative products, systems, and solutions. Therefore, we rely on a powerful central Research and Development structure and on Development Labs, operating as close to our markets as possible”.
He explained further that the introduction of biomass as a fuel for pyro-processing in Lafarge Africa Plc’s cement kilns “will go beyond contributing to the global environmental goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to improving the domestic technical skills of the cement industry in the use of biomass. This could result in more applications in the use of renewable fuels and clean technologies in cement manufacturing and other energy based industries in Nigeria”.
The Businessday Top 25 Most Innovative Companies and Institutions Award 2017 recognised the innovative exploits of companies and institutions in 2016; a year acknowledged as one of the toughest for business concerns in recent times, owing to the economic recession that swept through various industries in the country.
