Climate change

We have a transversal Climate Change strategy with actions to mitigate and offset the carbon footprint of the Business Group and to promote actions to adapt our businesses to the effects of climate change.

Grupo Argos plays an active role in defining the sustainability vision of its investments, for which it has a Corporate Sustainability Strategy that sets the Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance goals of the Business Group and is fed by a broad perspective and based on the trends of each industry in which Cementos Argos, Celsia and Odinsa participate.

Grupo Argos’ sustainability strategy is based on three principles: conscious investment, responsible operation and cutting-edge practices. This tripartite vision is aligned and integrated with our environmental, social and corporate governance performance, in order to generate value for our shareholders, for society and for the environment.

The management of the sustainability strategy has a governance scheme that guarantees alignment thanks to the participation of our executives in the boards of directors and sustainability committees of the companies.

Climate change strategy of Grupo Empresarial Argos

Our behavior positively transforms the world

At Grupo Empresarial Argos we have deployed great efforts on different fronts to combat the impacts of climate change. By 2030 we will reduce the intensity of our CO2e emissions by 46%.

We have a transversal Climate Change strategy, designed and led by Grupo Argos with actions to mitigate and offset the consolidated carbon footprint of the Business Group and to adapt our businesses to the effects that climate change brings. The foregoing, with the aim of promoting the transition towards carbon neutrality in our businesses by 2050. Our goals will be achieved through five CO2e emission reduction levers:

Improve energy efficiency in facilities
Use alternative materials and fuels (co-processing)
Reduce caloric consumption in ovens
Reduce the clinker/cement factor
Create an energy generation matrix with at least 25% non-conventional renewable energy sources

15.2 MILLION TREES

Planted voluntarily during the last 6 years.

Goals and commitments of the Argos Business Group

0

Net carbon emissions by 2050.

46 %

Less CO2e intensity emissions by 2030, baseline 2018.

36 %

Less absolute CO2 emissions compared to the 2018 baseline.

Quantify

the risks and opportunities of climate change.

Our path

Our actions

In our role as an active strategic architect, at Grupo Argos we lead the structuring of the general strategy of the Business Group to set mitigation goals for 2030, defining a reduction in the intensity of its CO2 emissions by 46%, baseline 2018, and 37% reduction in its absolute CO2e emissions, compared to 2015.

2.9 M

tCO2e reduced in the last seven years.
+120 THOUSAND

credits or certified carbon bonds for offsetting CO2e emissions.

Mitigation Strategy

Modular system of concrete panels for housing construction that reduces construction times by up to 40%, saves resources and avoids wasting materials.
Green Cement, which reduces caloric energy consumption by 30% and CO2 emissions by 38%.
Capture of carbon dioxide through micro algae at the Cartagena plant.
Co-processing for the substitution of fuels and raw materials for waste such as tires at its plants in the United States and Honduras.

Reduction of absolute emissions by 63% compared to 2019 with an intensity of 87 tons of CO2e per GWh, which is equivalent to a reduction of 76% compared to 2015.
With its sustainable mobility program, it installed 136 recharging stations in Colombia and Central America and delivered 120 100% electric buses to the Bogotá mass transportation system, Transmilenio.
Of the 1,861 MW of installed capacity of all Celsia’s generation assets, 1,385 MW come from renewable sources.
Wide portfolio of energy efficiency, lights, appliances, smart meters for the energy savings of its customers.

First company in Colombia with validation of science-based objectives to contribute to climate change mitigation in line with the global goal of avoiding a global temperature increase of more than 1.5°C by 2030.
El Dorado Airport was recognized by the Airports Council International (ACI) as one of the 4 airports worldwide most committed to actions against climate change.
LEED Platinum Certification El Dorado Airport, positioning itself as the first airport in the world LEED Certificate for Existing Building: Operation and Maintenance and the first in Latin America LEED Certificate for Existing Building: Operation and Maintenance.

Our actions

With the voluntary planting of 10 million trees, our Business Group consolidates itself as the private sector company that has contributed the most to reforestation in Colombia, helping to capture more than 13 million tons of C02e from the atmosphere in the last five years. . At the end of 2021, this figure will rise to 12 million.

+11.4 M

trees of native species planted in the last six years.
+120,000

certified carbon credits or bonuses for offsetting CO2e emissions.

Compensation Strategy

8 million trees and mangroves planted voluntarily in the last five years. In 2021 we will plant 4 million more trees.
We are the private business group that has contributed the most to the National Government’s goal of planting 180 million trees.
In the planting processes we also ensure the life cycle of individuals, we generate regional development processes through the generation of employment, the promotion of water funds and the strengthening of nurseries.
Through the Sembrando Futuro program of the Grupo Argos Foundation, starting in 2021, at least one million trees will be planted each year in Antioquia, Tolima, Sucre, Bolívar, Córdoba and Valle del Cauca.

Our actions

In Grupo Argos we seek to manage in an integral way the risks and opportunities derived from climate change, in order to strengthen the ability to adapt and with it the resilience of our business.

Quantification of physical and transition risks associated with climate change.
Identification of business opportunities for the business group associated with climate change.

Adaptation Strategy

We trained more than 100 people in the district of Boca Cerrada (San Onofre, Sucre) on the dynamics and importance of the mangrove swamp as a highly productive ecosystem, a buffer against floods, a protector against erosion and a refuge area for fauna.
We consider climate change as part of the company’s strategic risks, which drives us to carry out rigorous, disciplined management that facilitates the allocation of capital.
In a first exercise, we identified three risks at the holding level that were raised to a strategic risk level and, in turn, 30 climate change risks were recognized in the businesses of the Business Group, distributed as follows: Cementos Argos 7; Celsia 8; Odinsa 3; coal 7 and urban development 5.
Likewise, we carry out a vulnerability analysis of the assets of the Business Group, establishing a scale from very low to high. As a result, all businesses presented levels of vulnerability to climate change ranging from very low to moderate.