With their "Initiative for Sustainability" the German cement industry aims to develop in a future-oriented way, capable of meeting growing economic, social and environmental requirements. Given the fact that the cement industry is a major supplier to the construction sector and must ensure their supply of raw materials from the mining and quarrying sector, the key questions are: how does the cement industry contribute to climate and resource conservation, and how can the cement industry increase their resource productivity and secure their supply with raw materials?

Improvements in technology and/or organisation across the value chain are particularly important for increasing resource productivity. Therefore, this project undertakes an analysis of measures that can be used both within the cement industry (e.g. new methods in the production of clinker) and in downstream processes (e.g. altered aggregates in concrete production). Altogether, this project provides an overview of the key strategies and approaches for increasing resource productivity along the value chain cement/concrete and illustrates these using examples. With regard to the future development of the political frameworks, this project aims to show what goals of increasing resource productivity can be estimated as feasible.

Structure of the project
The project is divided into 3 work packages:

• WP 1: Raw material demand and land use in the German cement industry
  Overview of the use of raw materials, the land requirements and the "after-use" utilisation of quarrying sites of the German cement industry
• WP 2: Resource productivity - limits and potentials
  Presentation of the different indicators to measure resource productivity
  Analysis of the technological and economic progress in improving resource productivity along the value chain cement / concrete
• WP 3: Raw materials policy and security of supply
  Presentation of the existing and currently discussed policy measures to increase resource productivity and resource security
  Analysis of the implementation options for the German cement industry