Company Profile – Alcoa
Back to Company Profiles Home
Producing aluminium from ore is an energy intensive process that releases a lot of carbon emissions. As a major producer of aluminium, Alcoa is bound to have a large carbon footprint. However, society requires the product and Alcoa cannot be blamed for all the emissions they create so long as they take steps to continually reduce their carbon footprint as much as possible.
Alcoa has certainly taken some steps towards fighting global warming in their operations, but there remains room for improvement.
In the US, Alcoa is a founding partner of the United States Climate Action Partnership. This is an alliance of large corporations and environmental groups that pushes for stronger legislation on the issue of carbon emissions and global warming. However, the cynic cannot help but wonder if they are trying to frame the debate on global warming in a manner that would favor them instead of leave the debate in the hands of others. One example giving Alcoa credibility in this group was its support of the Lieberman-Warner bill to regulate carbon emissions, even while some members of the group opposed it.
In 2000, Alcoa set up a series of goals for their company, many of which looked at their carbon footprint and the company’s impact on global warming. Alcoa intends to improve the energy intensity in its smelting operations by 10% by 2010. This is a first step toward overcoming the natural handicaps of their industry. However, as this area is the biggest contributor to the company’s carbon footprint, it would be nice to see a more ambitious goal.
By 2015, the company intends to have a 100% reduction in land fill waste and has set interim targets along to way to ensure that they reach this goal. In terms of overall carbon emissions, Alcoa set the target of a 25% reduction by 2010 from their 1990 levels. This goal was achieved in 2003 and the current reduction has reached 33% - an impressive achievement toward reducing their carbon footprint.
To achieve this, Alcoa has implemented a series of measures with an emphasis on using renewable energy to cut their carbon footprint.
At a project in Australia, Alcoa has partnered with other companies to use carbon capture and storage technology to reduce their carbon emissions. In Iceland, they are using geothermal energy to cut their carbon footprint. In 2003, the company started buying Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) for 100% of the energy used at their four main corporate offices. Their offices, however, are responsible for only a small fraction of their carbon footprint – would be far better to see them doing this at their smelting plants.
In the US, Alcoa has developed their own hydro plants to power their smelting operation that generate 5.4 billion kWh of power.
In their emissions, there is one area that stands out as needing the most improvement. Even while their total greenhouse gas emissions have dropped, their emissions of perfluorocarbons (PFCs) have risen. Alcoa is quite public with this information and is working to improve in this area, though results are still needed to gain the goodwill for their intentions.
One of the strongest areas in their environmental record is the recycling of aluminium products, specifically cans. The company recycles 14 billion cans each year, saving an estimated 2 million tons of carbon emissions. It takes 95% less energy to produce a can from recycle aluminium, and generates 95% fewer carbon emissions.
For this reason (and for more sales), Alcoa is pushing the use of aluminium in more products, specifically transportation as a light weight alternative. Since it is lighter than steel, it would create significant savings in fuel use and the vehicle could be recycled much more efficiently at the end of its life. Based on this, Alcoa claims that aluminium as a product will be carbon neutral by 2025, although this logic is clearly biased and flawed.
With their employees, Alcoa has a program called Ten Million Trees. This is the successor to the One Million Trees program that pushes employees to plant trees, both on company property and on their own. The goal of planting ten million trees by 2020 will absorb 250,000 tons of carbon.
Outside their regular operations, Alcoa deserves praises for the transparency in reporting the data of their carbon footprint. In 2007, they became a founding reporter in the Climate Registry that sees big corporations report on their total carbon emissions each year.
So how do they stack up?
Business Strategy: 3/5 – could have more of a focus on using recycled aluminium as a method of cutting their carbon footprint
Products & Services: 3/5 – although hampered by the necessary process of smelting, their use of renewable energy helps reduce their carbon footprint, but more work needs to be done on PFCs
Leading by Example: 4/5 – as a founder of several environmental advocacy groups and alliances and a strong proponent of recycling they set a strong example for other mining companies
Overall: 3.3/5
Share This Story: |
