Cemex : Closing a book

Visitors are left to judge a publication by its cover.

The Site

Cemex, the Mexico-based building materials producer, passes up an opportunity to show off a long-running commitment to conservation.

Cemex has produced books on conservation issues annually since 1993 and provides a link on its home page to a news release about the most recent addition to the collection, A Climate for Life. The release reveals that the book has been published in partnership with Conservation International and the International League of Climate Photographers but its Related Links feature has no direct route to further information about either the the groups or the book series. A Conservation page within the site’s Sustainability section includes an overview of the initiative and a link to a Conservation Book collection brochure in PDF. Neither location has details of where or how copies can be obtained.

A review of the book appears on the Conservation International website (conservation.org) with links to a selection of high-quality photographs from it that can be browsed on the site.

The Takeaway

Cemex has several features in its Sustainability section aimed at engaging visitors with its sustained activity in this area: an interactive timeline, case study gallery, and an online annual report and 11-year archive are among the most notable. All the stranger, then, that information about its prestigious Conservation Book series should lead not even to a sample page for anyone stimulated to find out more.

It may be that the books are available only to a restricted audience and not to the general public (information details how copies are donated to institutions and causes). Even so, having been given such an enticing build-up, the terms on which and to whom A Climate for Life is available should be made clear. If this is the case, all the more reason for linking to the photo-feature on the Conservation International site, to give people a taste of the publication as well as to cement the connection with the environmental host.

First published on 28 April, 2009