This Guidance is a companion document to the Protocol for Water Reporting for the Cement Industry (‘the Protocol’) of the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI).
The Protocol sets out the requirements for disclosure and benchmarking, based on the kind of operations, and specific reporting requirements for cement plant operations, aggregate installations and ready-mix concrete (RMC) operations.
The Guidance offers recommendations, technical direction and methodologies on measurement and making estimates for a reliable accounting of water withdrawals, discharges and consumption, to improve the accuracy of water accounting by companies. The recommendations featured in this document cover cement, aggregates and RMC operations.Recommendations cover these areas:
• Pre-requisites for water accounting, defining site boundaries and identifying water in-flows and water out-flows from the site;
• Measuring, selecting, installing and maintaining measurement devices;
• Methodologies to calculate by measurement, when continuous or direct readings from meters are not available, and for calculating by estimation as a third option. Alternatives to gauging water consumption in aggregate and RMC operations are included;
• Recording and managing meters and water data; and
• Indicative values for cement operations to help users assess water consumption for accounting purposes.