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environmental awareness
Mining materials,
Creating habitats -
our environmental potential
Environment - our contribution
The members of the SSG SOLNHOFEN STONE GROUP
SAV SOLENHOFER AKTIENVEREIN
GM GUNDELSHEIMER MARMORWERK
HENLE
had already recognised decades ago that deserted stone quarries had become
substitute habitats for animal populations the majority of which were endangered species.
The amalgamation of these companies in SSG also bundled their environmental sensitivity into a targeted potential environmental power.
SSG took up and continually supported the Species Conservation Program for the
Apollo Butterfly set up in 1989 by the Bavarian State Department for the Protection of
the Environment - through to the 2006 Environmental Pact. On the one hand, this
collaboration enabled a conscious and co-ordinated flow of power from the interested
companies in favour of unspoiled nature and, on the other hand, included a logical
and forward-looking environmental concept by the Bavarian State Government.
This was so convincing that all the companies in the Industrial Federation Altmühltaler Kalksteine e. V. have also signed up in the meantime as well as SSG.
WHAT IS THE EFFECT OF THIS SPECIES CONSERVATION PROGRAMME
or this ENVIRONMENTAL PACT?
The Apollo butterfly (Parnassius apollo) is the focus of attention of the Environmental Pact.
The aim is to provide the necessary habitats, i.e. dry and warm rock crevices in calcareous, compacted spoil heaps.
"White stonecrop" grows there which is the staple diet of the Apollo butterfly.
Such suitable rock crevice formations are only found outside the Alpine region in
North Frankenalb (Lichtenfels) and in the Solnhofen/Eichstätt stone quarry area in the
form of spoil heaps.
The mission of the Environmental Pact strongly promoted by SSG between the
Districts of Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen and the Industrial Federation Eichstätt and
Altmühltaler Kalksteine e. V. is the "protection and preservation of old spoil heaps,
which are important for nature conservation, and the drawing-up and implementation
of nature-conservation-relevant measures for setting up new spoil heaps.
It is important to note that the Apollo butterfly is considered to be an "Umbrella species".
Its new habitats help a large number of other animals to find suitable habitats e.g. the red-winged grasshopper.
The loss i.e. the decline or destruction of existing rock spoil heaps (primarily former,
now compacted spoil heaps) inevitably involves the loss of the Apollo butterfly and other species.
These economic endeavours are a matter of course for SSG.
Our performance also enables exemplary protection of the environment that covers all production steps without exception.
| SSG | obtains and processes exclusively natural raw materials |
| SSG | Production techniques comply with the strictest environmental and energy-saving standards |
| SSG | Production technologies guarantee the maintenance of the natural benefits of the raw materials, primarily when processing the format and surface. |
| SSG | Operating processes fulfill current DIN and EN standards |
| SSG | uses its NATURAL STONE COMPANY POTENTIAL to leave a viable environment for future generations. |
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| Spoil heaps formerly perceived to be "worthless" rubbish dumps now constitute regained, typical habitats for specific creatures and plants besides their economic use (raw materials). |
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| Extraction, extraction sites and extraction technology are now subject to the aims of the common Environmental Pact. What was formerly left to the individual stone quarry operator's discretion is now coordinated comprehensively and professionally by the environmental authorites. |
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