Celebrating excellence: the 2026 Holcim Spirit Awards
The 2026 Holcim Spirit Award celebrates our countries delivering superior performance and living the Holcim Spirit, as we accelerate our NextGen Growth 2030 strategy.
In Krakow, Poland, over 200 of our senior leaders came together at our Senior Leaders Meeting 2026 to align on the execution of our strategy and share best practice from across our markets.
They also celebrated the winners of the second edition of the Holcim Spirit Award, which we announced in Krakow following a rigorous evaluation process. In addition to one overall winner, there were three winners in each of our three core pillars: Purpose, People and Performance.
What is the Holcim Spirit? It’s the engine powering our NextGen Growth 2030 strategy. The culture of our organization that motivates us to become the leading partner for sustainable construction, and to build progress for people and the planet.
OVERALL WINNER
Greece won the overall Holcim Spirit Award 2026 for its outstanding performance across all three pillars of Purpose, People and Performance, with CEO Dimitris Chanis accepting the award.
In 2025, the market delivered record performance driven by strong megatrends, commercial execution and leadership. Holcim Greece is integral to the delivery of The Ellinikon, Europe’s largest urban redevelopment project, and it is successfully shifting towards high-value building solutions - from ECOPact to DYNAMax and ZinCo.
Greece is a leader in carbon capture and storage with its landmark Olympus project that broke ground in May 2025. Here, the market is partnering across the value chain to advance carbon capture while creating around 1 000 direct and indirect jobs during construction, alongside 100 permanent operational roles.
The market is also driving circular construction to build cities from cities, while our local Geocycle business is processing around 120 000 tons of packaging waste a year into alternative raw materials and thermal energy.
As the overall winner of the 2026 Holcim Spirit Awards, Greece drove sustainable construction with our high-value solutions for infrastructure, industry and buildings – notably in projects like The Ellinikon. Our team consistently delivered performance and value creation across different economic cycles, and truly lived the Holcim Spirit.
PURPOSE
Driven by a clear purpose to build progress, with sustainability and innovation at the core to drive our NextGen Growth 2030 strategy
Holcim Romania, led by CEO Bogdan Dobre, took the prize in the Purpose category for its exceptional commitment to driving sustainable construction and NextGen Growth, making substantial progress on local decarbonization, operational and commercial milestones.
The market advanced low-carbon technologies across its operations to reduce emissions, while strengthening resilience in supply chain, tender eligibility, and overall market competitiveness.
Romania won European Union Innovation Fund backing for its clean tech carbon capture and storage (CCS) project to produce near-zero cement in Câmpulung. This will advance the EU’s Clean Industrial Deal as the first large-scale onshore CCS project of its kind in Eastern Europe.
PEOPLE
Creating the best workplace for people, where talent is nurtured, employees are engaged and Health and Safety is our top priority
Holcim Morocco, led by CEO Khalid Samaka, received the award in the People category for its "She Leads Operations – NextGen Women Pipeline", the market’s end-to-end strategic talent initiative designed to achieve 30% female representation in its operations by 2030.
The program focuses on: attracting talent via discovery days and career fairs; building technical skills through workshops and university partnerships; building a fast-track pipeline with internships; running unconscious bias workshops; mentorship programs for female engineers.
The Holcim Spirit shone in Morocco as well, highlighted by a Health Safety and Environment (HSE) Gold Award and a Top Employer Certification from the Top Employers Institute.
PERFORMANCE
Driven by a clear purpose to build progress, with sustainability and innovation at the core to drive our NextGen Growth 2030 strategy
Holcim El Salvador won the Performance award for turning strategic ambition into flawless commercial execution and market leadership, with CEO Marcelo Arrieta receiving the award onstage.
The team drove strong growth across infrastructure, industry and building projects, anchored by major projects like the Los Chorros Highway, where Holcim is supporting an historic transformation of a key section of the Pan-American Highway. Here we will ultimately supply over 250 000 m3 of ECOPact low-carbon concrete, as well as ECOPlanet and ECOCycle.
Operationally, targeted efficiency gains significantly enhanced performance at the El Ronco plant in northern El Salvador. By simultaneously scaling its use of alternative fuels, the market reduced its emissions while delivering performance-driven execution at scale.
Our stories
