Taking a Life Cycle ApproachTo be a truly sustainable company, we need to consider the impacts of our products from “cradle to grave” or “cradle to cradle.” This means taking a life cycle approach, an approach that is fundamental to our sustainability efforts at Novelis.
Aluminum’s intrinsic combination of properties including strength, lightweight, durability, conductivity and recyclability offers its users unrivalled sustainable solutions. It is the 3rd most common element in the earth’s crust. Bauxite is mined in many countries, including Australia, Brazil, Guinea and India. Primary aluminum production is relatively energy intensive, but overall life cycle benefits of using aluminum are high, with aluminum products being inherently energy-saving because of their low weight and corrosion resistant nature.
The aluminum industry has made good progress to use energy more efficiently and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from aluminum production. Average energy consumption and subsequent emissions per metric ton of production have fallen by more than 70% over the past hundred years. First produced in 1888, nearly three quarters of all aluminum ever made remains in use today representing an energy and resource bank.
Aluminum is an economically valuable and infinitely recyclable metal, which is why recycling has always been a part of the aluminum value chain. We realize that if we are not offering society good performance from a complete life cycle perspective, then the opportunities for our business will contract. And if we offer strong performance, we can create some exciting opportunities for our customers and their consumers.
We are using life cycle assessment (LCA) as a powerful tool to chart our business direction toward a strategic focus on those products with favorable life cycle attributes. These include a lower carbon footprint, lower total resource use, higher recyclability, greater benefits to society and improved profitability. When we apply a life cycle view, it is clear that our most significant sustainability impact is in the sourcing of our raw materials. As a result, we have set an ambitious goal of using 80% recycled aluminum by 2020, and life cycle thinking will be essential for us to achieve this. Nevertheless, recycling is only one of the ways we are addressing sustainability across the life cycles of our products.