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Ball participates in shared vision for aluminum sustainability

The Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI), in collaboration with Ball Corp., Broomfield, Colo., and other aluminum industry firms, has introduced new, comprehensive criteria for a global standard for sustainable aluminum production that will further improve environmental, social, and governance performance throughout the entire aluminum value chain.

In Ball's 2014 sustainability report, the company announced its goal to work with ASI and support the development of a global standard that promotes sustainable practices by the end of 2015. To accomplish this goal, Ball and other aluminum industry companies worked with upstream partners, including Constellium, Hydro, Novelis, and Rio Tinto Alcan, and alongside 15 nongovernmental organizations throughout 2014 to define sustainability issues relevant to the aluminum value chain.

The resulting ASI performance standard addresses issues relevant to the production and sourcing of aluminum, from extraction of bauxite to the producers of commercial and consumer goods and the recycling of pre- and postconsumer aluminum scrap. The standard focuses on 11 key sustainability aspects: business integrity; policy and management; transparency; material stewardship; greenhouse gas emissions; water; emissions, effluents, and waste; biodiversity; human rights; labor rights; and occupational health and safety.

The performance standard will be implemented through a third-party certification system. It is expected that certification of compliance can apply at both the company level and the product level. The standard will allow aluminum industry companies to provide independent, credible, and verifiable information regarding their environmental, social, and governance performance. This will enable the identification of suppliers and materials based on their sustainability performance.

Ball Corp. supplies sustainable packaging for beverage, food, and household products customers, as well as aerospace and other technologies and services primarily for the U.S. government.