Atotonilco: Cerro Jardín + Xoyatla + Coayuca (Mexico)

About the Program
One of CEMEX’s many cement product facilities is located in Atotonilco, Hidalgo, on the outskirts of Mexico City. The program started in 2019 with community engagement efforts and the subsequent conservation of a seven-plus acre desert and small landscape habitats. The company leads an annual environmental outreach as part of its corporate Community Environmental Restoration program, engaging local high school students in an educational and training program that prepares them for community assessment and restoration projects. Some activities also include the maintenance and monitoring of a 50-square meter community pollinator garden "Un Jardín para Todos" ("A Garden for Everyone"). Their projects aim to enhance environmental awareness, knowledge and participation in restoration efforts as well as restore mining-affected areas with native species to help address its water shortage, soil erosion and lack of vegetation coverage.

Practices and Impacts

• The Restauración Ambiental Comunitaria project uses a participatory model for environmental education that involves participants in an open process of assessing and addressing issues in the communities where the project takes place. Part of their involvement includes activities to support the pollinator garden project.
• Between 2022 and 2023, 40 students were engaged in activities like educational sessions, social and ecological assessments of the communities, and establishing and maintaining restoration projects.
• The project has been well received in the community with students learning and becoming more interested in caring for and protecting the environment.
• The CEMEX desert project started in mid-2021 and involves the restoration of an impacted quarry area with native species like blue agave and firecracker bush.
• Through the maintenance of contour lines to help prevent erosion and a water catchment to collect water, the restored habitat has successfully reestablished local biodiversity and attracted wildlife.
• Recent monitoring found 11 plant and 17 wildlife species, four of which are endemic to Mexico, such as the black-tailed hare and northern cacomixtle. Other wildlife observed include birds like the Mexican finch and red-eyed cowbird.