Alcoa

Sector: Corporate

Employees:

> 122,000 (2007)

Carbon Footprint:

> 33,900,000 metric tonnes CO₂e (2006)

TARGETS

> To make 50% of its fabrication metal from recycled aluminium by 2020.

Achievements

> 25% reduction in GHG emissions compared to 1990 baseline.

Benefits

> US$20 million annual net savings due to efficiency measures. 

Low Carbon Solutions

Background

Alcoa is the world’s leading producer and manager of primary aluminium, fabricated aluminium and alumina facilities, and is active in all major aspects of the industry. 2006 revenues were US$30.4 billion.
Alcoa was an early mover on climate change. In 1998, Alcoa addressed the Aluminium Association, calling on the industry to act to mitigate climate change, stating to its aluminium industry peers, “If you get this one wrong, you don’t get a second chance.”
Because of Alcoa’s proactive position and internal action on climate change, CERES, the largest coalition of investors, environmental and public interest organisations in North America, ranked Alcoa second among US companies in its Report on Corporate Governance and Climate Change, out of 100 global companies.
With 129,000 employees in 42 countries, Alcoa’s action on climate change has a global impact.

Alcoa has established The Alcoa Foundation’s Global Network, which brings together many of the world’s best minds from academia, government, NGOs and industry to implement solutions on climate and energy.
Additionally, Alcoa is part of the Green Power Market Development Group through which Alcoa participated in the largest renewable energy certificate purchase to date in the US.

Having already reduced its own emissions, Alcoa set a second goal of making 50% of its fabrication metal from recycled aluminium by 2020. Because aluminium is a highly energy-intensive industry, recycling is important. In the case of producing beverage cans, using recycled aluminium saves 95% of energy as compared to production from raw materials.
In its position as one of the world’s largest producers of aluminium, the company has actively leveraged the sustainability characteristics of aluminium to its advantage. Primarily the company has been promoting the use of aluminium in transportation applications and has seen some success in displacing steel’s dominance in the auto markets. Alcoa’s value proposition is to provide aluminium applications that enable automakers to build low-weight, fuel-efficient vehicles that reduce tailpipe emissions in line with increasingly stringent emissions regulations worldwide. The company grabbed headlines in 2005 when it announced that the aluminium industry could effectively become “carbon neutral” by 2017 (based on a fixed annual global market growth rate of 4.3%).

Alcoa uses high-efficiency co-generation technologies in Australia. Worldwide, one-third of energy for Alcoa is sourced from hydro-power.

The company has set emissions reduction targets under its 2020 Strategic Framework. Alcoa’s initial emission reduction goal was to reduce GHGs 25% below 1990 levels by 2010. Through energy efficiency and process control, Alcoa achieved the 25% reduction goal in 2003, seven years ahead of schedule.
Alcoa has a dedicated Climate Change Strategy team to oversee climate change-related programmes. Alcoa’s emissions disclosure is top tier. All Alcoa businesses have been charged to set aggressive energy efficiency goals and to develop and deploy plans to achieve its targets.