Since joining the Climate Leaders Coalition in 2018, we have taken a science-based approach to setting an appropriate and ambitious 2030 carbon reduction target and put in place roadmaps at the business unit level to plan for achieving it.
Ravensdown’s carbon reduction roadmap has identified some exciting opportunities. After setting our first carbon reduction target of 15% by 2030, specific roadmaps for fertiliser and lime were established, representing the most significant areas of work towards Ravensdown’s climate targets. There has been a focused effort to reduce coal consumption, resulting in a 9.5% reduction in the total company footprint over 2.5 years. The target has since been upgraded to 30% reduction by 2030.
Until recently, three of Ravensdown’s seven lime quarries still used coal to fuel the drying process: drying limestone produced 3,889 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in 2019, 25% of Ravensdown’s core annual emissions. In 2020 we undertook a large-scale scoping study to identify alternatives to coal for drying lime, followed by the implementation of a number of improvement projects resulting in efficiencies from selective mining and drying, investment in improved infrastructure for screening, monitoring moisture and conserving heat, and substitution of remaining coal for renewable alternatives resulting in a much lower carbon product.
In addition, erosion-prone land of ecological value has been put forward for a native forestry planting programme, designed to sequester carbon while offering ecological, biodiversity and aesthetic benefits to the local areas.
You can find more information about what we are doing to eliminate coal from the lime drying process here.