Areas of Focus
Alcoa Foundation’s global Advancing Sustainability themes
Environment: Bring about meaningful and systemic improvements in environmental sustainability through support for research, dialogue, standards and actions around the following areas of focus:
REDUCE, RECYCLE, REPLENISH
- Use fewer natural resources, produce less waste, reduce emissions and mitigate climate change through exploration of renewable energy
- Drive greater recycling rates and reuse of materials
- Manage biodiversity, enhance parks and land use, promote reforestation and conserve quality of water resources
SUSTAINABLE DESIGN IN CITIES AND MASS TRANSIT
Our goal is to advance sustainable industrial and product designs that address challenges presented by global megatrends in transportation and urbanization.
- TRANSPORTATION: Find lightweight solutions that improve fuel efficiency and minimize the overall environmental footprint of mass transit
- URBANIZATION: Explore the role of architecture and design in building and construction to enable climate change adaptation and enhance the environmental and social sustainability of cities
MEASURE AND SET STANDARDS
- Develop meaningful standards that measure the total environmental footprint of products and industries while supporting a holistic analysis of the biological lifecycle
Education: Support educational endeavors that offer us, as a company specializing in aluminum integration and in innovations involving aluminum, an opportunity provide our expertise and make a difference, specifically in the following areas:
STEM
- Support innovative education and training programs and teach curriculums in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)
ENVIRONMENT
- Promote environmental awareness and create environmental community ambassadors among our employees, students and communities
SAFETY
- Encourage college students and young professionals to pursue careers in Environment, Health and Safety (EHS)
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
- Provide education and training opportunities in engineering and manufacturing to promote self-sufficiency
Here are a few examples of our partnerships. You can find many more in the News section:
Environment
- Défi on recycle (Recycling Challenge), a Bécancour Chamber of Commerce initiative, is a free service offered to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Bécancour region. Specialized consultants can help guide the SMEs in developing a waste management plan and on how to take concrete action to reduce, recycle and re-use various types of waste. By the end of 2013, 33% of the companies who will have taken part in the Défi should hold the highest level of certification under the program thanks to the appropriate management of at least 80% of their generated waste.
- The Manicouagan-Uapishka World Biosphere Reserve, of which we are a partner, established a new sustainability reference center on Quebec’s North Shore.
- Four of the 29 projects supported by the Foundation in Quebec in 2011 will have resulted in the planting of over 10,000 trees by the end of 2012.
Education
- In November 2011, Metallurgy Week helped promote the metallurgy industry and related professions in eight regions of the province of Quebec.
- 2011 marked the 10th anniversary of Alcoa Foundation’s partnership with the Programme en Éducation à l’Environnement et Citoyenneté (PEEC). The PEEC helps students, from preschoolers to university students and senior learners, address community issues that range from discouraging crime to addressing climate change. The PEEC’s learning approach takes participants to the heart of the issue and encourages them to intervene directly with stakeholders in their communities to address the problems. So far, 12,000 participants and over 600 stakeholders have benefitted from this method.
- The daughter of an employee from the Deschambault Smelter was chosen from among 450 applicants aged 15-18 years hailing from a dozen countries to participate in the summer academy of the Dwight International School’s Institute for Civic Leadership on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. There, she developed her leadership skills along with some 50 other youngsters from the four corners of the planet.
