Sustainability is easy to talk about and hard to prove. At St Marys Cement, we would rather show our work.
Since 1912, St Marys Cement has operated on and alongside the land it quarries, in the same towns, beside the same waterways, under the same skies as the people it serves. Accountability was never optional here; it was built into our operations from the start. Long before sustainable construction materials became an industry priority, we were rehabilitating quarry land, investing in cleaner production methods, and building long-term relationships with customers, communities, and regulators grounded in transparency. Our progress is measured in certifications, Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), and documented results.
By 2050, our target is to bring emissions down to 475 kilograms per tonne of cement produced. Measured against our 2018 baseline, this goal represents a reduction of more than 25 percent. It is not a rounding exercise or a distant aspiration attached to a press release. It is a number we are committed to, tracked year over year, and reported alongside the rest of our environmental performance.
St Marys Cement sustainability commitments are part of a larger framework set by Votorantim Cimentos North America (VCNA). When Votorantim Cimentos expanded into North America in 2001, St Marys Cement was the foundation of that entry, the first footprint on the continent for a global company that chose this operation above all others as its starting point. The commitments that framework carries today span Safety and Health, responsible use of resources, and a Sustainable Legacy.
Each of our commitments translates into specific operational targets that our plants are measured against, year after year. Act with Ownership, one of the nine principles of Our VC Way, means we are accountable not just for what we intend, but for what we actually deliver.
For the complete picture, the VCNA Integrated Report gathers environmental, social, and governance performance into one verified document. It is the source behind the figures referenced across these pages, published so that anyone who wants to check our claims against the record can do so directly. Transparency is the practice that Open Dialogue, one of the nine principles of Our VC Way, has always required.
In the 2024 Slag Cement in Sustainable Concrete Awards, St Marys Cement and its network companies were recognized in four categories. Concrete supplied by a St Marys Cement customer contributed to The Couture in Wisconsin and the Ohio Department of Transportation (DOT) Interstate Route (IR) 70 and State Route (SR) 29 interchange. Sister companies earned recognition for the lower-carbon Crossroads North Building 11 in Michigan and a durable Army Corps of Engineers fuel storage facility in Buffalo.
Slag cement is produced from a by-product of iron manufacturing that would otherwise require disposal. Rather than disposing of iron slag, VCNA is committed to the recovery of this material by installing granulators onsite at iron blast furnaces to create slag granules, the precursor to slag cement. Its use in concrete reduces the clinker content required in the mix, which is where the majority of cement’s carbon intensity originates, while producing denser, more durable structures with a longer service life. National recognition in a technical awards programme is one measure of what these products deliver. The structures themselves are the other.
Day-to-day sustainability work at St Marys Cement covers environmental reporting and communications, climate-related actions, toxic substance reporting, mine decommissioning planning, and local environmental impact management. These are operational disciplines built into how we operate, not programmes that exist separately from production.
Recent results from across the network illustrate what that work looks like in practice. The St Marys Ontario plant earned Natural Resources Canada’s ENERGY STAR for Industry certification in 2024, placing it in the top quartile for energy performance across Canada and the United States. After commissioning a new alternative fuels system, the team identified and corrected idle energy use, recovering approximately 540,000 kilowatt hours and $52,000 in annual savings. At the Charlevoix plant, approximately 40 percent of kiln energy now comes from alternative sources rather than coal or petroleum coke, through regulated co-processing of non-hazardous, non-recyclable industrial by-products. All St Marys Cement plants now produce Portland Limestone Cement (PLC), a product that uses a higher proportion of limestone in place of clinker and carries a reduced carbon profile compared to ordinary Portland cement.
At the Canada Building Materials (CBM) McMillan site, a former extraction area has been rehabilitated and returned to productive use. Employees across the network planted more than 1,000 trees on Earth Day 2025, continuing a stewardship record that stretches back decades. Learn and Evolve, one of the nine principles of Our VC Way, means measuring honestly, reporting transparently, and improving continuously. These are not isolated events; they are the accumulated record of a company that has operated with that standard in mind since 1912.
Sustainability at St Marys Cement extends beyond what we make. It includes the people and places that surround every plant, terminal, and office in the network. Our teams contribute time and resources across the communities where we operate: building homes with Habitat for Humanity in Northumberland County, coaching and sponsoring youth hockey through the Josh Bailey Classic Tournament, stocking shelves at the Stratford House of Blessing Food Bank, and joining the United Way Day of Caring alongside hundreds of regional volunteers.
Across the Votorantim Cimentos North America network, our businesses have contributed approximately $1.6 million USD over five years to causes centred on health and wellness, veterans and emergency services, and education. St Marys Cement has completed more than 200 community projects, created more than 900 jobs, and earned more than 80 awards in the communities surrounding its operations. The Sustainable Legacy principle at the heart of Our VC Way asks every person and every operation to contribute to the development of the places where we work. At St Marys Cement, that has been the practice since before it had a name.
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