Quarry Life Award 2012

For the first time HeidelbergCement initiates the Quarry Life Award, an international competition to find new ideas for the conservation and promotion of species diversity in quarries and gravel pits. For many years HeidelbergCement has been promoting the protection of biodiversity during and after the quarrying activities.

“Our company commits to promote the exceptional local flora and fauna in its more than 1000 quarries and pits worldwide,” said Dr. Bernd Scheifele, CEO of HeidelbergCement. “We believe that research projects and ideas can raise the knowledge of the biological value of quarrying sites and thereby contribute to further protect and promote biodiversity. That’s why we launched the Quarry Life Award.”

The Quarry Life Award will take place in roughly 15 countries in Europe, Central Asia and Africa. Students and scientists as well as co-operations with NGOs can participate if they hand in their project proposals by 17 February 2012 at the website www.quarrylifeaward.com. From March to September 2012 selected quarries and gravel pits in the participating countries will be open for the applicants’ best projects.

Projects submitted must focus on the following key topics:

• Discover biodiversity in quarrying sites: the project increases the knowledge about biodiversity in the selected quarrying site.
• Biodiversity and rehabilitation: the project promotes biodiversity in quarry rehabilitation such as nature protection, forestry, agriculture, recreation etc.
• Biodiversity and education: the project provides new concepts for social activities focused on quarrying and biodiversity such as nature trails, or cooperations with schools, universities, NGOs etc.
• Biodiversity management during extraction: the project protects or promotes the biodiversity value of the quarry during its extraction period.

After implementation of the projects on site, three winners per country and three global winners will be awarded prizes. National awards of EUR 1,500, EUR 3,000 and EUR 5,000 as well as global awards of EUR 10,000, EUR 20,000 and EUR 30,000 will be granted to the winners.

Further information is available online at: www.quarrylifeaward.com

About HeidelbergCement

HeidelbergCement is the global market leader in aggregates and a prominent player in the fields of cement, concrete and other downstream activities, making it one of the world’s largest manufacturers of building materials. The company employs some 55,000 people at 2,500 locations in more than 40 countries.

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