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Environment Overview

Operating in a manner that protects and promotes the health and well-being of the environment is a core value to Alcoa.

We have been widely recognized by government and non-governmental agencies around the world for our environmental stewardship, and this success is driven by our people.
Our business leaders understand the critical importance of minimizing impacts and maximizing opportunities related to the environment in the products we offer and the processes and operations required to manufacture them. Our strategic direction and execution on environmental objectives are supported by more than 500 environmental professionals worldwide, backed by numerous relationships with external experts in areas key to our operations.

In 2001, we developed an initial set of long-range goals to be achieved by 2020, with routine measurement to track our progress. We updated these goals in early 2006 as part of a larger initiative to enhance Alcoa’s sustainability framework.

Our goals are aggressive; they are not intended to be easily achieved just for the sake of positive communications. They were developed to stimulate designing for the environment during process optimization and growth projects, which requires technical innovation and collaboration. While this approach is more difficult and costly, we believe it will allow us to manage the uncertainty of ever-changing environmental regulations and, more importantly, justify our being a company of choice for future growth opportunities around the world.

We continued to make good progress on several of our strategic targets in 2007, most notably the reduction of sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxide (NOx), and volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions from our operations. We are also pursuing some research and development projects that explore innovative and cost-effective applications that will hopefully drive even further reduction of these emissions.

Our major challenges remain the reduction of mercury emissions from our refineries and the reduction of freshwater consumption. While we incrementally made progress on both of these targets in 2007, we continue to research innovative methods for achieving better results.

The foundation of our performance continues to be our corporate-level environment, health, and safety (EHS) management system, which was certified to the ISO 14001 standard for the fourth year in a row in 2007. We also embarked on the installation of a new environmental compliance management software, bringing additional focus on compliance risk identification and elimination.


2020 Framework Environmental Goals
TargetMetricProgress Achieved Through Year-End 2007
Increase recycling of aluminum 25% recycled aluminum content in fabricated products by 2010; 50% by 2020 Ratio of purchased scrap to total fabricated product shipments was 30%. However, the total amount of recycled metal in our products is somewhat lower since a portion of the purchased scrap would have been included in primary ingot sold to third parties.
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Increase the North American used beverage can recycling rate to 75% by 2015 52%
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Improve resource use to reduce environmental "footprint" From base year 2005:
10% reduction in selected material use by 2010
  • 2006: Collect data
  • 2007: Commence reporting
Businesses have worked to identify major raw materials for which a reduction target could be considered.
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From base year 2000:
50% reduction in landfill waste by 2007; 75% reduction by 2010; 100% reduction by 2015
52%
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Reduce energy intensity by 10% by 2010 We are pursuing several production transformation projects that, if successful, will allow us to achieve this goal.
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60% reduction in process water by 2009; 70% by 2010 26%
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From base year 1990:
25% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2010. Assuming success with the inert anode technology, a 50% reduction by 2010
33%
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Practice cleaner production to reduce environmental emissions/impacts From base year 2000:
60% reduction in sulfur dioxide (SO2) by 2010
31%
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50% reduction in volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by 2008; 60% reduction by 2010 44%
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30% reduction in nitrogen oxides (NOx) by 2007; 50% reduction by 2010; 85% reduction by 2015 50%
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80% reduction in mercury emissions by 2008; 90% reduction by 2010; 95% reduction by 2015 10%
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Zero process water discharge by 2020 Initial efforts to control process water are being managed through the process water reduction target.
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Global Environmental Goals



View Alcoa's global environmental goals.
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Climate Change



Read about Alcoa's commitment and actions regarding global climate change.
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Earthwatch Diaries



Read the diaries of Alcoa employees participating in Earthwatch research projects throughout the world.
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Provide your thoughts on Alcoa's sustainability reporting.
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