Interviews
In an exclusive conversation, Bjørn Kjetil Mauritzen, Senior Vice President and Head of Sustainability at Hydro, underscored the company’s unwavering commitment to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. He outlined clear interim goals of cutting emissions by 10 per cent by 2025 and 30 per cent by 2030, based on 2018 levels. According to Mauritzen, Hydro is driving this transition through three main strategies - expanding post-consumer scrap recycling, advancing breakthrough technologies like carbon capture and zero-emission smelting, and accelerating the use of renewable energy while boosting efficiency. Dive into the full interview to explore his insights in detail.
AL Circle: Hydro has long positioned itself as a sustainability leader in the aluminium industry. Could you share your overarching vision for achieving net-zero emissions and how this translates into tangible actions across your global operations?
Bjørn Kjetil Mauritzen: At Hydro, our vision is to create a more viable society by developing natural resources into products and solutions in innovative and efficient ways. Achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 is central to this vision. We are also on track to reduce emissions from our own operations by 10 per cent by 2025 and 30 per cent by 2030 from a 2018 baseline, enabled by our technological roadmap.
We are decarbonising our operations through three main levers:
One of the largest single projects that will help us accomplish our shorter-term goals is the fuel switch project at our Alunorte alumina refinery in Brazil. Hydro has invested BRL 1.3 billion (USD 244.5 million) to transition from heavy fuel oil to natural gas and install three 60MW electric boilers, reducing annual CO2 emissions from the refinery by approximately 1,100,000 tonnes. The project has now been in operation for a year.
