Limak Cement: Accelerated Pathways Toward Freshwater Targets

SBTN’s accelerated pathways offer a flexible, modular way to begin setting science-based targets for nature – helping companies start taking credible action faster. Among companies to validate progress using this approach is Limak Çimento Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş. (Limak Cement) – a Turkish cement producer and subsidiary of Limak Group of Companies.

Background

Limak Cement operates a range of manufacturing activities across Türkiye – including seven integrated clinker and cement plants, alongside a broad network of grinding stations, Ready-Mix Concrete plants, aggregate operations, and dedicated fuel facilities. The company depends on local freshwater for cooling and manufacturing processes, undertakes quarrying activities followed by progressive rehabilitation, and operates within river basins and ecosystems that both shape and are shaped by its activities.

In June 2026, Limak Cement validated its materiality assessment and prioritization work for freshwater in its direct operations, using SBTN’s Steps 1 and 2 V1.2 guidance.

By applying the SBTN framework, Limak aims to build upon its existing environmental and water management systems with a place-based, science-based, and recognized methodology that measures impact against the actual condition of each basin rather than company-wide averages.

“At Limak Cement, we believe that addressing nature-related risks is both an environmental responsibility and a strategic business imperative. Completing this assessment under the SBTN framework gives us a credible, science-based foundation to understand where our operations interact with nature and where our future commitments should be focused. This is a meaningful first step, and we are committed to building on it with concrete targets and actions.” – M. Erkam Kocakerim, Global CEO, Limak Cement

How Limak Cement used SBTN’s accelerated pathways

The company used all three accelerated pathways available, narrowing their focus by business unit, realm, and value chain segment.

“SBTN’s accelerated pathways let us move from ambition to validated progress without losing focus. For Limak Cement, freshwater in our direct operations was the natural place to start — it is material to the business, well supported by our own site-level data, and tied directly to the basins where we can make a real difference. This first milestone gives us a clear foundation for setting science-based freshwater targets where they count.”  — M. Erkam Kocakerim, Global CEO, Limak Cement

Here’s what Limak’s use of accelerated pathways looked like in practice:

Using the business unit approach within accelerated pathways, the company focused on its seven integrated cement plants in Türkiye — the sites responsible for the large majority of its direct operational water withdrawals — which fall across five river basins: Asi (Orontes), Tigris–Euphrates, Sakarya, Maritsa (Meriç), and Susurluk.

Limak then focused on the realm and value-chain segment that would be most material, most rigorous, and most actionable — freshwater in direct operations. By comparing its plants basin by basin — weighing the pressure each operation exerts (water withdrawals) against the local state of nature (water availability and basin condition) — Limak Cement established where the same volume of withdrawal carries materially different significance, and therefore where freshwater target-setting should begin.

Overcoming challenges along the way

One challenge Limak Cement faced was to translate data and processes from its existing nature initiatives into the specific format SBTN’s science-based and place-based method requires. This was particularly important where operational data needed to intersect with basin-level and state-of-nature information.

However, once past the hurdle of initial familiarisation with a new framework, aligning existing work with the method proved straightforward. The company described SBTN’s guidance as “clear and well-structured,” and credited these features to their successful validation. By concentrating first on freshwater in direct operations through accelerated pathways, the company was able to build on areas where its data, operational control and ability to act were strongest.

Looking forward

Limak Cement’s assessment and prioritization work is already shaping the next phase of its freshwater work. The assessment has made nature a concrete, operational topic inside the business. Limak Cement’s teams now share a clear view of which basins, sites, and pressures take priority, and where action should begin.

“The clearest finding was that nature-related impact cannot be managed on aggregate figures alone — location does the decisive work. The same operational pressure means something quite different from one basin to the next, depending on water availability, ecological sensitivity and state of nature. For Limak Cement, this confirmed a principle now built into our planning: future freshwater action must be driven not by total withdrawal volumes, but by where those withdrawals occur and the condition of the surrounding environment.” –  M. Erkam Kocakerim, Global CEO, Limak Cement

Equipped with this credible foundation, Limak’s next move is from assessment to targets. The company intends to take Step 3 freshwater targets forward in the priority basins identified in Steps 1 & 2 — carrying out further baseline work, reviewing the relevant hydrological models and thresholds, consulting stakeholders, and preparing the target-setting documentation for validation.

In parallel, Limak Cement will continue to strengthen site-level water management, advance its environmental data systems, and integrate nature-related priorities into its broader sustainability and resilience agenda.

Through SBTN’s Step Up for Nature initiative, the company has signaled its ambition to submit freshwater targets for validation by December 2026.

Learn more:

• Find Limak Cement’s Step 1 & 2 disclosure on the SBTN Target Tracker.
• Learn more about SBTN’s accelerated pathways.