Novelis reaches sustainability milestones

Aluminium rolling and recycling specialist Novelis has announced significant progress in its commitment toward reducing its carbon footprint and delivering on key measures of sustainable business performance.

Sustainability Through Disruptive Innovation, the company’s third annual sustainability report, details recent milestones including an increase in the recycled content of its products from 33% to 43% in the first two years since announcing its ambitious target to achieve 80% recycled content by 2020. The publication also reports that Novelis became the world’s largest recycler of aluminium this year, as it continues to expand its recycling capacity around the world.

“Our intent when we established our sustainability targets two years ago was to transcend the incremental approach by radically transforming our company – and, in the process, lead the way in our industry,” says Phil Martens, Novelis president and chief executive officer. “This approach is driving changes in the way we source inputs, structure our supply chain, make capital investments, develop our products and engage with our customers. We are still in the early stages of our sustainability journey, with many hurdles yet to overcome, but our efforts are already beginning to bear fruit. I am more firmly convinced than ever that our commitment to sustainability will be the key value driver for our company going forward.”

Other highlights of the comprehensive report include the following results versus baseline performance using the average of fiscal years 2007–2009: 19% reduction in energy intensity, more than halfway to 39% goal; 16% reduction in water intensity, more than halfway to 25% goal; and a 14% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, representing significant progress towards reaching its total goal of halving absolute GHGs.

In the last year, the company’s sustainability strategy drove the development of evercan, an independently certified, high-recycled content aluminum beverage can sheet. Novelis describes the product as a ‘packaging breakthrough’ that delivers sustainability benefits to customers and end consumers.

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