Environmental Sustainability
As a sustainable company, Alcoa is committed to the highest standards of environmental performance. Protecting and preserving the environment are core elements of our commitment to sustainability and our Values. Acknowledged as a world leader in a number of environmental management areas, we are continuously working to further improve our performance through technological innovation, community partnerships and conservation of resources.
Read more about our environmental excellence in our Sustainability Reporting 08.
Read more about environmental awards won by Alcoa.
Mine rehabilitation
Alcoa is a recognised world leader in mine site rehabilitation. We have well-established and successful rehabilitation programs in both the Darling Range in Western Australia and at Anglesea in Victoria. Alcoa was the first mining company in the world to achieve 100 per cent plant species richness in our rehabilitated mine site areas in WA.
Read more about our bauxite mining.
Read more about our Anglesea operations.
Read more about rehabilitation.
Climate change, emissions reduction & energy efficiency
Alcoa has long recognised the need to respond to the challenge of climate change. We took an early voluntary global leadership position on addressing climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and have been successful in reducing our greenhouse footprint.
In Australia, Alcoa is reducing greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency, productivity improvements and new technology. In 2003, we achieved our target of reducing global direct greenhouse gas emissions by 25% from a base year of 1990. Since 2003, we have further reduced global direct greenhouse gas emissions to 33% below 1990 levels.
The Australian Government intends to introduce a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) by 2011. Alcoa supports a CPRS that delivers reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and does not compromise the international competitiveness of Australia's alumina and aluminium industry. We believe in a sustainable solution that supports greenhouse solutions and Australian jobs.
Read more about Alcoa and climate change.
Our Sustainability Reporting 08 details, climate change, air quality, and greenhouse gas intensity reduction.
A secure supply of competitively priced energy is a top priority for Alcoa. Read more about energy management.
Our Sustainability Reporting 08 details energy efficiency.
We are seeking long term solutions to these global problems and we continue to move beyond the work gates and out into the community to do so – our Make an Impact program is one example. Make an Impact is a program which helps Alcoa employees, their families and the wider community reduce their household water and energy use and become part of the solution to climate change. It was established in 2006 in partnership with our long-time sustainability partner Greening Australia. At Alcoa, we are committed to helping people think about climate change and how we could all do things differently in our carbon constrained world. Read more about Make an Impact.
Case Study: Success for Anglesea SO2 Management.
Case Study: Carbon Capture – the clever way to cut CO2.
Waste reduction
We are not only taking a global leadership position on reducing emissions (see above) and being part of the solution to climate change - we are also taking action on a much simpler level.
We are reducing waste to landfill right across our 10 sites in Australia thanks to our three-bin-system and our worm farm. Our three-bin-system separates recyclables and compostable materials from landfill waste, to ensure nothing unnecessary is ending up in landfill. The materials discarded in the compostable bins end up at our worm farm located at the Pinjarra refinery. On average each year, our worm farm saves about 140,000 kilograms of kitchen waste from going to landfill.
We also participate in several other programs to recycle steel, glass, aluminium, drums, oil and air filters, batteries, plastics, paper and printer cartridges.
Our Sustainability Reporting 08 details our waste reduction initiatives.
Water reduction
At Alcoa, we realise that water is a precious resource and we acknowledge that we are a significant water user in both Western Australia and Victoria. We are actively working to reduce our overall consumption of water, increase water use efficiency and replace high grade water sources, which are used by the broader community, with lower grade sources.
In WA, we continue working with the Water Corporation in an effort to identify possible alternative water sources such as treated waste water. If we can achieve our goal to reduce the amount of high-grade water we use, this will undoubtedly take the pressure off licensed water sources.
Our West Australian mining operations have reduced total water use by 22 per cent since 2000, while also increasing waste water recycling and storm water capture. In 2007 our McCoy Crusher Facility at the Huntly bauxite mine was awarded the Water Recycling Award by the Department of Water and the Water Corporation. The McCoy facility was specifically designed to maximise water harvesting and recycling. Storm water runoff and treated wastewater are collected in a purpose built reservoir and used for haul road dust suppression. This leading edge design was created from a range of industry best practice engineering solutions and successful innovations.
Alcoa's Pinjarra refinery takes tertiary treated sewage effluent from the sewerage treatment plant nearby. This 241ML of water annually allows the refinery to lessen the use of fresh water sources, while at the same time lessening the nutrient-rich input that would otherwise have made its way into the local Peel-Harvey estuary system.
In Victoria we’ve made great progress too. Alcoa’s operations in the Barwon Water region have reduced high grade water consumption by 60 per cent since 1990. We are currently working towards a target of a further 70 per cent reduction by 2010.
Since 2007, we’ve been supporting a comprehensive study into rural water usage which aims to reshape water saving attitudes. The innovative research study is a partnership between Wannon Water, Deakin University, the Alcoa Foundation, Portland Aluminium and the Victorian Government ‘SmartWater!’ Fund. It’s identifying water usage behaviours in regional and rural settings and is an invaluable tool for water authorities in Victoria and Australia-wide to help the development sustainable water use strategies. The research has included in-depth interviews and surveys with both rural and regional water uses, culminating in the development and evaluation of a behaviour change strategy pilot program.
Case Study: Water wise winners.
Download Alcoa's water strategy for the Barwon region.
Residue management
Bauxite residue management is a sustainability issue for alumina producers across the globe, and Alcoa is committed to ensuring sustainability principles are applied to our management of bauxite residue. Our leadership this area is demonstrated in the development of a full scale ‘Carbon Capture’ plant, utilising bauxite residue, in operation at Kwinana.
Development of alternative uses for bauxite residue, with the aim of reducing the size of our residue areas, continues to be one of the major objectives of our residue research program run by the Technology Delivery Group (TDG). TDG is Alcoa’s refining research and development group, based at Kwinana, which leads the development of residue reuse opportunities for the company globally.
Read more about residue management.
Aluminium … part of the solution to climate change
Did you know that our product is part of the solution to climate change? Recycling and the use of aluminium in transport (lightweighting) will likely make aluminium climate neutral by 2025. Read more.
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Video: Alcoa's Worm Farm
Segment from Channel 9's Garden Gurus TV program
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Video: 'Make an Impact'
Alcoa's employee greenhouse footprint reduction program
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Video: 'Make an Impact'
Hear from our employees
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Video: 'River Recovery'
Alcoa & Greening Australia in partnership
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