Alcoa: Sustainability: Environment: Emissions, Effluents, & Waste: Programs & Actions

Greenhouse Gas Reductions
In 1998, we established a Climate Change Strategy Team that developed and promoted our position on climate change, including our target of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 25% below 1990 levels by 2010. We achieved that goal in 2003, despite our continuous growth. In 2007, we achieved further reductions in direct emissions linked to our closure of three lignite-based power units in Rockdale, Texas, USA, bringing our total reduction to 33% from 1990 levels.

Our climate strategy was documented in a recent publication from the Pew Center on Climate Change entitled "Getting Ahead of the Curve: Corporate Strategies That Address Climate Change."

We also participate in many external surveys of corporations and their efforts to address climate change and their carbon footprint. For example, we have participated in all six surveys performed by the Carbon Disclosure Project—a not-for-profit organization supporting institutional investors who seek to better understand climate-related risks and opportunities from the world's largest companies. We have routinely ranked among the highest ratings within the metals and mining industry in this survey.

Here are some examples of our activities along the entire aluminum lifecycle chain.

Key Partnerships
We continue to actively partner with external stakeholders. We are a member of the Business Leadership team for the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, the World Resources Institute Green Power Market Development Group (charter member), the Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development, the Global Roundtable on Climate Change, and the World Economic Forum Global GHG Registry. We are also actively involved in the development of GHG accounting standards in conjunction with the International Aluminium Institute, International Standards Organization, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
In late 2007, we became a founding reporter of the Climate Registry, agreeing to report GHG emissions individually from all of our large facilities in the United States by the year 2010.

United States Climate Action Partnership
In early 2007, we joined nine highly esteemed U.S.-based companies and four leading environmental organizations to found the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), an alliance designed to call on the U.S. government to quickly enact strong national legislation to achieve significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. Since then, USCAP has grown to more than 30 members, and we have been routinely sought out for input into leading federal policy development.

Additional information on USCAP, including the partners' specific recommendations for U.S. climate policy, can be found on the Climate Change page.

Technology Development
We continue to pursue the development of GHG-free inert-anode aluminum smelting, although there remain technical and cost targets to overcome. In addition, our introduction of a process for using carbon dioxide (CO₂) to neutralize bauxite residue will help prepare the residue for long-term disposal and reduce GHG emissions.

We're already using biodiesel, an alternative fuel consisting of diesel and 20% soybean oil or other non-petroleum ingredients, to power mobile equipment at our plants.

Power Generation
In Brazil, we are participating in developing hydropower plants that independent studies show will be environmentally sound, socially responsible, and economically feasible.

Today, our company's hydro facilities generate billions of kilowatt hours for Alcoa operations worldwide, and we are committed to decreasing our reliance on fossil fuels by increasing the use of natural, renewable energy sources that help lower CO₂ emissions.

Smelting
While our overall GHG emissions decreased in 2007, our emissions of perfluorocarbons (PFCs) increased to 3.94 million metric tons of CO₂ equivalents from a 2006 level of 3.7 million metric tons. This increase was primarily due to the increase in year-over-year production volume, as well as some line restart difficulties at our Rockdale, Texas, and Tennessee smelters in the United States.

Secondary Smelting
We have aworldwide commitment to produce 50% of our fabricated aluminum product volume from lower energy and lower GHG-intense recycled metal by year 2020. Today, about 30% of our fabricated products are derived from recycled aluminum.

Product Life
Aluminum used in transport applications pays for itself quickly in terms of fuel savings and greenhouse gas emissions. It is estimated that by 2020 or earlier, the aluminum used in automobiles, trucks, railways, and buses will provide the potential to save enough fuel to offset all of the greenhouse gases produced by all of the aluminum companies throughout the world¹. The industry will be a net reducer of greenhouse gases on a society-wide basis.

In collaboration with the International Aluminium Institute and regional associations, we created and published in 2007 a life cycle transport model to quantify the energy and emissions savings associated with applying high strength-to-mass ratio aluminum components for transportation applications.

Recycling
Our beverage can recycling activities save an estimated 2 million tons of CO₂ each year compared to producing this same metal from primary sources.

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Ozone-Depleting Substances
We have eliminated ozone-depleting substances from process operations. In newly acquired facilities, elimination of these substances is a high priority. We do continue to use halon gas as a fire suppressant in several locations throughout the world, and these systems will continue to be phased out. There have been no documented releases from a halon system since 2004.

We are currently replacing some halon systems with FM 2000, which is not an ozone-depleting substance but does have a high global-warming potential. We continue to search for other substitutes that will address that concern as well.

Emissions Reductions
Our strategic goals call for reductions in key air emissions from a baseline of 2000. These targets are set on an absolute basis and do not accommodate increases due to our continued growth. Despite this aggressive approach, we have made considerable progress on some of our targets, such as NOx and VOC emissions (reductions of 50% and 44%, respectively). In 2007, we also made considerable progress in SO₂ emissions with the shutdown of three lignite-based power units in Rockdale, Texas, USA. Additionally, we are installing a wet limestone scrubber system at our Warrick, Indiana, USA, power plant.

The reduction of mercury emissions remains a significant challenge for us. While our reduction improved from 2% in 2006 to 10% in 2007, we have much ground to gain to meet our goal of an 80% reduction by 2008.

Mercury is naturally occurring in varying concentrations in the bauxite we mine. We have invested considerable time and money to develop methods for eliminating emissions of mercury. However, understanding the fate of mercury through the refining process has proven to be more complex than originally anticipated. In 2008, we will be convening our technical experts and business leaders to pursue near-term objectives and actions for making further progress.

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Waste Minimization
We have set a goal to have zero waste disposed in landfills by 2015, with a short-term goal of a 50% reduction in landfilled waste by 2007 from a base year of 2000. Many of our facilities throughout the world have made great strides in reducing the waste they landfill, helping us achieve this goal in 2004.

While we have been able to make further reductions in landfilling routine production-based wastes, these were offset by several non-routine projects, such as pot line dismantling and process equipment upgrades. As such, our reduction through 2007 stood at 52%.

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Spent Pot Lining
As discussed in the Material Use section, we continue to make progress in converting a significant waste from our smelting process—spent pot lining (SPL)—into an energy and mineralizer resource for cement kilns. SPL is generated when the carbon and refractory lining of smelting pots reaches the end of its serviceable life.

In the last few years, we have led our industry in finding ways to transform the waste into a raw material for other industries. We're working with cement manufacturers in several countries to develop an environmentally safe process that treats the chemicals of concern in the material, while at the same time using the energy value of the material to reduce the cost of cement production.

Through this and other efforts, we recycled 23% of the spent pot lining we produced in 2007. While this is up from the 17% we recycled in 2006, progress has been slower than desired. We are aggressively working to expand the market for this material, and this should allow for rapid increases in volumes recycled in the next few years.

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Bauxite Residue Management
Bauxite residue is a significant byproduct of the alumina refining industry. For every ton of alumina produced, approximately one to two tons of bauxite residue results—primarily based on the quality of the bauxite processed.

Each of our refineries handles bauxite residue differently based on local conditions. Overseeing this work is our residue management lead team, which reviews each refinery's systems and mandatory residue disposal area plans (five-year and 25-year).

We continue to explore opportunities to use bauxite residue as a source material for a variety of applications. We have also developed, tested, and, in some cases, implemented process modifications aimed at reducing the environmental footprint of residue storage and chemically rendering the material so it is more suitable for re-use or long-term management.

Our work also involves rehabilitating bauxite storage areas for reuse. In Brazil, a former disposal area is now a 26-hectare (64-acre) rehabilitated area that supports native Brazilian trees and other vegetation as well as reemerging animal life. The reclaimed land is also serving as a natural research laboratory.

We also believe it's important to work with the surrounding communities as we plan for future bauxite residue disposal areas. In Australia, residue stakeholder reference groups with broad representation from the local community and state and local governments helped in the development of long-term residue management strategies (see case study).

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Compliance
We require all Alcoa locations to operate in compliance with all applicable environmental laws and regulations. Our corporate compliance function facilitates our goal of zero non-compliance incidents by tracking actual or potential issues and ensuring that matters of non-compliance are corrected with sustainable solutions.
We continue to make significant progress since the compliance program was implemented. In 2007, 76% of our operating locations operated without any environmental non-compliance incidents, up from 69% in 2006.

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Case Studies

Turning Industrial Waste into Commercial Products

Alcoa Facilities in France Reduce Emissions, Waste

City-Initiated Sustainability Initiative Reduces Environmental Impact, Costs

Reduced Water Consumption, Discharge Exceed Alcoa Goals

Less to Landfill Creates Funds for Community

Residue Carbon Capture Delivers Double Environmental Benefit

Fighting Climate Change on the Home Front

Community Stakeholders Help Develop Environmental Improvement Plans

Smelter Effort Reduces Emissions, Costs with No Capital Investment

Alcoa Business System Opens Window to Waste Elimination

Alcoa-Developed Technology Reduces Mercury Emissions