Novelis Announces Plan to Reduce Lifecycle Impact of Aluminum

Novelis Inc., Atlanta, has announced a corporate-wide commitment to significantly reduce its carbon footprint by, among other steps, expanding its use of recycled materials, increasing post-consumer recycling of aluminum products and accelerating the development of new, high-recycled content alloys.

In a Novelis release, the aluminum firm says that under its sustainability goal, it is seeking to increase the amount of recycled metal it uses in its rolling operations, and has committed that by 2020 80 percent of its products will be made from recycled metal. At the present time, Novelis says its use of recycled metal currently accounts for 34 percent of all the material it uses.

Novelis says that its sustainability commitment is focused on driving improvements in three areas:

•    Raw Materials – While Novelis recycled close to 40 billion UBCs in 2010, the company is looking to increase the amount of recycled aluminum it uses. To accomplish this, the company is planning major expansions of its recycling and remelting capacity globally. Additionally, Novelis is planning on expanding its buyback opportunities to customers for the aluminum scrap they generate in their processes.
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•    Post-Consumer Recycling – Novelis plans to increase global aluminum recycling rates through innovation and expanding its recycling facility infrastructure. The company will build on its recycling operations by investing research and development into post-consumer recycling technology, collaborating with stakeholders to expand existing recycling programs and educating consumers in the value of recycling.
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•    Product Innovation – Novelis is accelerating its research and development of new products for sustainable applications, while increasing its partnership activities with its customers to target the next generation of aluminum alloys that enable increased use of post-consumer recycled metal. Novelis aims to develop innovative alloys that meet the combined performance and sustainability needs of its customers.
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Novelis’ Sustainability Commitment is being led by John Gardner, who was appointed vice president and chief sustainability officer.

A detailed presentation outlining the elements of the Novelis Sustainability Commitment can be found on the new novelis.com website, at www.novelis.com/sustainability.