Cement manufacture is resource and energy intensive. It produces significant releases to the environment, primarily as airborne emissions. Emissions measurement, monitoring and reporting contributes to understanding, documenting and improving the industry's environmental performance. Lack of emissions information can lead to local concerns about plant operations.

The initial objective (2002-2004) for the CSI Task Force on Emissions Monitoring and Reporting, as discussed in the Agenda for Action was therefore to establish an emissions measurement and reporting protocol which would provide a common framework for all participants.

Subsequently, individual companies will set their own emissions targets by or before 2006, and then report on progress toward those targets.

The protocol outlined here focuses on the practical task of monitoring and reporting emissions from cement production. While many analytical standards are available under various national and international regimes (e.g. Mexico, Germany, ISO, Japan, USA and the EU), not all countries use these — particularly developing economies where the cement market is growing most quickly. As a result, emissions standards may not be available nor be adequately enforced in some places.

This protocol has therefore been developed to meet three main objectives:

To encourage uniform monitoring and reporting of cement process emissions.
To provide credible, relevant, and easily understandable information on emissions.
To provide internal management with a tool for gathering relevant information to plan cement emissions monitoring and reporting.

The protocol identifies the specific pollutants and emission sources which all CSI member companies have agreed to monitor. It covers cement plant main stack emissions, as these are the largest single point source, may have a significant impact on the environment, and can be quantified with reasonable effort and accuracy.

The methods proposed to quantify emissions are those established by experts in analytical chemistry and field experience in the cement industry which will produce representative results under sometimes inhospitable measurement conditions. Continuous emissions monitoring is recommended as the preferred method whenever this is possible taking into account such factors as accuracy, maintainability of instrumentation, adequate calibration, and cost.

This protocol details the actions that CSI companies have agreed to take to monitor emissions. Based on these data individual companies have agreed to set their own emissions targets and to track their progress in emissions reduction using the agreed key performance indicators (KPIs). Each CSI company has agreed to publish their emissions data regularly (at least annually), and in a clear and straight forward way.

Our hope is that the guidelines are equally helpful to all cement companies and public bodies; are widely distributed and used, particularly in countries and regions where specific requirements have not yet been identified. However, these guidelines are not meant to, and can neither replace nor supersede local, national, or international requirements, which must be followed.