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September 29, 2009

Alcoa Foundation Joins Forces with GLOBE to Help Make Today's Youth Environmentally Aware

AMSTERDAM--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GLOBE Europe & Eurasia and the Alcoa Foundation today announced a joint program that will help enlarge GLOBE Europe's reach and impact by further developing its environment tracking network for European youngsters. Financial support for the program will be provided through a $76,000 donation from the Alcoa Foundation and will cover all European countries in which GLOBE currently is active.

Measuring impact

“GLOBE is all about creating environmental and sustainable awareness among our children -- and helping our future decision makers better understand these issues by showing them how to measure our environmental impact,” said Rudi Huber, Alcoa President European Region. “In our company we know how important it is to keep track of sustainability metrics on a daily basis. It’s good to see that GLOBE and its students are using proven methods of structural assessment to draw a picture of the state of our world. Alcoa Foundation is pleased that we are able to help GLOBE take the next step in environmental awareness into the European region.”

Youth summit

Matthijs Begheyn, regional coordinator GLOBE Europe & Eurasia on proposing the GLOBE project to the Alcoa Foundation: “It was great to write a proposal for the Alcoa Foundation. We really worked like partners to develop the best opportunities to help GLOBE reach a higher level in the region. As a big international organization, Alcoa has a lot of experience that can help us think of ideas to get the most out of our European network. One of the more interesting opportunities that we have with the Alcoa Foundation funding is to organize a large-scale European GLOBE Youth Summit, planned for early 2011. At this meeting students from all over Europe will get together to present their GLOBE research to each other and to the world. It will also be the beginning of the European part of a Worldwide Student Research Campaign on Climate that aims to involve 1,000,000 students worldwide.”

First network meeting

The Alcoa Foundation support, which will run midway through 2011, was officially announced during the first GLOBE Europe & Eurasia network meeting where national GLOBE leaders discussed the regional GLOBE strategy. Taking part in the discussions were also Dr. Teresa Kennedy, Director International Division GLOBE; Mr. Wim Kok, former Prime Minister of The Netherlands and various representatives from Government, NGO’s and the Private sector.

About GLOBE

GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) is a worldwide hands-on, primary and secondary school-based science and education program. Announced in 1994 by USA Vice President Al Gore, GLOBE began operations on Earth Day 1995. Today, the international GLOBE network has grown to include 22.000 schools from 110 participating countries. GLOBE students have contributed more than 19 million measurements to the GLOBE database for use in their inquiry-based science projects. The goals of the GLOBE Program are to:

Improve student achievement across the curriculum with a focus on student research in environmental and Earth system science;
Enhance awareness and support activities of individuals throughout the world to benefit the environment;
Contribute to scientific understanding of Earth as a system; and Inspire the next generation of global scientists.

GLOBE Europe and Eurasia (40 participating countries) is one of the 5 regions of the international GLOBE program (110 countries).

For more information go to the international website www.globe.gov

About Alcoa Foundation

Alcoa Foundation is a separately constituted nonprofit U.S. corporate foundation with a mission to actively invest in the quality of life in Alcoa communities worldwide. For more than 57 years, Alcoa Foundation has been addressing the needs of Alcoa communities with over $490 invested since 1952.

In 2008, combined by Alcoa and Alcoa Foundation totaled US$50.6 million. Alcoa Foundation provided nearly US$26.2 million in grants in 35 countries where Alcoa operates, with Alcoa and Alcoa-related foundations contributing another US$24.4 million to support projects and partnerships with NGOs around the world.

Alcoa Foundation manages the Alcoa employee volunteer programs ACTION and Bravo! through which Alcoa employees gave more than 705,000 hours of voluntary service in 2008, matched by over $4 million in grants to local organizations. For more information, visit www.alcoa.com/foundation.

About Alcoa

Alcoa (NYSE:AA) is the world leader in production and management of primary aluminum, fabricated aluminum and alumina combined, through its active and growing participation in all major aspects of the industry. Alcoa serves the aerospace, automotive, packaging, building and construction, commercial transportation and industrial markets, bringing design, engineering, production and other capabilities of Alcoa’s businesses to customers. In addition to aluminum products and components including flat-rolled products, hard alloy extrusions, and forgings, Alcoa also markets Alcoa wheels, fastening systems, precision and investment castings, and building systems. The Company has been named one of the top most sustainable corporations in the world at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and has been a member of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for eight consecutive years. Alcoa employs approximately 63,000 people in 31 countries across the world. More information can be found at www.alcoa.com.