On Sunday 30 September, the cement plant of Barletta (historical small town on the Adriatic sea in the Puglia region) celebrated its 100th anniversary. Approximately 400 guests, including local authorities, employees, retirees and families took part in the event organized to celebrate this extraordinary date.
An interesting photography exhibition was held for the occasion; it bore witness to these past 100 years. In addition, the book “1912-2012 Cento anni della Cementeria di Barletta” (1912-2012, the Barletta plant celebrates its one hundred years) by Renato Russo was also presented; it provides a detailed account of the long history of the plant, from its establishment until today.
Founded in 1912 by the lawyer Luigi Scuro, the Barletta cement plant became part of Buzzi Unicem in 1999. One hundred years later, the plant is still the largest industrial establishment in the city. 

For the sixth consecutive year, Buzzi Unicem attended Remtech – Remediation Technologies – 6th fair on the reclamation of contaminated sites and territorial requalification. Our stand was entirely dedicated to Solidur®, a market leader product in environmental reclamation, and its direct applications such as the reclamation of the Buyo reservoir in the Ivory Coast (see picture). As usual, the fair was an excellent occasion to meet people working in the environmental and hydraulic engineering sector, as well as for interesting encounters with experts, engineers and designers. 

On May 20 and 29, the Emilia region was struck by two devastating earthquakes. The municipality of Trino (VC) established a committee to aid the city of Cavezzo in the province of Modena, inviting sports and cultural associations to help raise funds through events and meetings. The Buzzi Social Center responded to the appeal by organizing a Joint Tennis Tournament without prizes for members, tennis lovers or simply fans. The initiative was supported by 40 participants and was able to donate a significant sum of money to the “Together for Cavezzo” committee.

Unical, our operational arm for the ready-mix concrete sector in Italy, has always been committed and ready to promote the continuous integration between the worlds of work and school.
The company has been collaborating with the l’Istituto Superiore (high school) "Bernardino Lotti" of Massa Marittima for several years, and this year in particular Unical was invited to hold an educational course on the Technology of Concrete. Aimed at third-year geotechnical and chemistry students, the program provided the students an in-depth look at operational practices that can be adopted to improve the durability of reinforced concrete objects. Professor Massimiliano Berti, who is responsible for professional trainings in the Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany areas and also serves as a company quality system auditor, participated in the sessions. The main topics of the course included: the durability of concrete, the causes of deterioration, the exposure classes, designing the durability, placement and curing of concrete, the addition of water and the H2NO project.
The collaboration between Unical and the Istituto Superiore of Massa Marittima is also aided by the use of a Unical publication “Concrete and reinforced structures” at the school as an extra textbook.

On June 1, the President of the Republic of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano, signed a decree proposed by the Minister of Economic Development, Corrado Passera, nominating 25 new Cavalieri del Lavoro (the highest Italian honour for services to industry), one of whom is Alvaro Di Stefano, President of T.I.M.E. SpA.
Born in Syracuse in 1930, Alvaro Di Stefano started his business career in 1955 working in transport, logistics, mechanical engineering and service initiatives for the cement industry. He served as a board director for Buzzi Unicem between 2002-2010, providing significant contributions with a strong entrepreneurial spirit.
We would like to extend our most sincere and heartiest congratulations to the new Cavaliere del Lavoro!

On May 11th, the 2011 edition of the Sustainability Report was presented during the annual meeting of shareholders.

The report shows the social, environmental and economic performance related to 2011, in accordance with GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) guidelines.
The 2011 edition discloses, for the first time, data series structured by country, to assure a better understanding of available information, with full transparency.

As for the previous years, the 2011 edition has achieved the level of application A+.
The 2011 Sustainability Report is written up and published in two languages: Italian and English.