Ball announces six recipients of sustainability award

Ball Corporation has awarded six of its metal packaging manufacturing plants with the R. David Hoover Sustainability Award for making significant progress towards the company’s sustainability and business goals.

The annual award recognises one plant in each division of Ball’s Global Beverage Packaging and Food & Aerosol Packaging businesses for year-over-year and longer-term operational improvements, as well as the plant team’s commitment to acting as product stewards, community ambassadors and team players.

The most sustainable plants of 2017 and their achievement highlights include:

Global Beverage Packaging

• Brasília, Brazil (Beverage Packaging South America): The Brasília plant, which is receiving the award for the second consecutive year, achieved another year without a recordable incident, increased its year-over-year water efficiency by 14%, reduced its year-over-year normalised natural gas usage by 23%, and promoted the can’s sustainability credentials in and around its plant.

• Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, USA (Beverage Packaging North & Central America): The plant cut its total recordable incident rate (TRIR) in half over the previous year, reduced its normalised electricity use by 10%, increased its water efficiency by 19%, and hosted more than a dozen community events at its facility, including Ball’s annual Let’s Can Hunger food drive.

• Foshan, China (Beverage Packaging Asia Pacific & Beverage Packaging Africa, Middle East & Asia): The Foshan plant reduced its TRIR by 64% over the previous year, reduced its normalised water use by 6%, reduced its normalised waste generation by 4% and increased its recycling rate by another 8% points.

• La Selva, Spain (Beverage Packaging Europe): The plant achieved zero recordable incidents, reduced its year-over-year normalised natural gas usage by 6%, supported “Cada Lata Cuenta,” the Spanish version of the Every Can Counts recycling programme, and provided support during the construction of Ball’s new beverage can plant near Madrid, Spain.

Food & Aerosol Packaging

• Ahmedabad, India (Ball Aerocan): Ahmedabad reduced its year-over-year normalised natural gas usage by more than 16%, reduced its normalised water use by more than 28% and the team volunteered to support flood victims in Gujarat after heavy rain struck the region around the plant in June and July 2017.

• Horsham, Pennsylvania, USA (Ball Tinplate): The plant reduced its TRIR by 54% over the previous year, reduced its normalised electricity use by 11%, sent zero waste to landfill, and promoted the recyclability of aerosol cans in the local community.

John A. Hayes, chairman, president and chief executive officer, said: “Congratulations to the 2017 Hoover Sustainability Award winners, who demonstrated an ongoing commitment to improving the sustainability of our operations and our products.

“Their efforts and the dedication of all of our plants and employees are critical to achieving our long-term goals of creating value for all of our stakeholders and making the can the most sustainable package.”

Ball established the R. David Hoover Sustainability Award in 2011 in honour of the company’s former chairman, president and CEO, who was a key driver in the development of Ball’s formal sustainability programme.

Later this year, Ball will release its 2018 sustainability report, as well as updated, third-party verified sustainability data on its website.

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