Low Carbon Aluminium – The Circular Pathway

Emilio Braghi, Senior Vice President & President Novelis Europe, about the challenges and chances of decarbonizing the aluminium industry – at CRU World Aluminium Conference 2021.

With global warming, our planet faces complex challenges. The Paris Agreement makes it very clear, we all have to contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It is a joint goal of the whole industry, and a joint obligation. The most effective way to reduce the carbon footprint of the aluminium used in final products is to maximize the recyclability and recycled content. To ensure a fully circular economy that best preserves resources and reduces CO2 emissions, both the end-of-life and the pre-consumer scrap need to be brought back into the recycling loop as early as possible in the process, before they get mixed with further materials. This requires us to redesign products and processes for recycling, increase closed-loop recycling systems, and avoid losses and waste along the value chain. We also must decrease energy intensity and increase renewable energy sourcing and generation. Moreover, innovation to develop new alloys and continuous work on collection and sorting facilities and technologies as well as increasing recycling capacities and capabilities will be key for making real progress on the decarbonization pathway.

We are proud to issue our second annual Purpose Report, which reflects the many ways in which we have collectively lived our purpose over the last fiscal year. The report highlights the very best of Novelis and captures the investments we have made to diversify our product portfolio, develop our people, enhance our culture and strengthen our customer relationships.

Click here to read the Purpose Report in your local language.

Everything we do at Novelis begins with our commitment to the health, safety and well-being of our people and communities. Novelis Neighbor is our global program for sponsoring and coordinating our community engagement and charitable investment efforts. As part of our worldwide corporate social responsibility campaign, Novelis employees support hundreds of community projects each year. These projects focus on three pillars: making communities safer; supporting Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education; and, increasing recycling by consumers.

Steve Fisher, President & CEO, Novelis Inc., participated in the inaugural Reuters NEXT Global Conference, a forum of leaders and forward thinkers tasked with reimagining solutions to the challenges the New Year brings, as well as how to deal with the rifts and problems that our world and societies will face in the decades to come.

Moderated by Melanie Burton, Reuters’ Asia Mining Correspondent, Steve was part of a panel discussion alongside Yash Lohia, Chief Sustainability Officer, Indorama Ventures, one of the world’s leading producers of plastics and PET bottles. During the discussion, Steve and Yash discussed the future of recycling, where Steve shared Novelis’ longstanding sustainability efforts and goals to promote a more circular economy, and how they align to Novelis’ purpose of Shaping a Sustainable World Together.

“As an industry, we need to do more to increase recycling rates by partnering with customers, consumers, regulators and industry peers to keep aluminum out of landfills and redirect it back into its highest-value uses,” said Steve. “Novelis is the world’s largest recycler of aluminum, and we have a perspective on what it takes to shift to more circular models – and how we can scale this across our business.”

Reuters published a story surrounding Steve’s comments titled, “Pandemic sharpens sustainability focus in plastics and aluminum.” To read the article, click here.

The Reuters NEXT conference was streamed to more than 25,000 attendees over the span of four days, with world-class attendees representing the media, government, NGOs, academia and business.

Click here to watch to panel discussion in its entirety.