World Wildlife Day sparks the emergence of new biodiversity support and conservation programme

March 3 marked World Wildlife Day, established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2013. It aims to draw additional attention to the necessity of conserving and protecting flora and fauna.

Today, many major companies share updates on their environmental projects and programs for nature conservation, including forest preservation, careful water resource management, and biodiversity conservation.

Environmental care is an integral part of large enterprises' corporate culture and activities. Companies continuously refine their approaches to nature conservation, expand the scope of environmental initiatives, and increase "green" investments in environmental protection. RUSAL is among those following such policies.

Six of the twelve transformational projects identified in the company's guiding document, the Business Sustainability Strategy until 2035, are dedicated to environmental protection and climate conservation. The company has set out to achieve decoupling effects along these six directions — breaking the vicious link between business growth and increased environmental impact. The enterprise's efforts are focused on reducing the ecological footprint while maintaining economic growth.

"Environmental conservation and minimising our ecological footprint are important aspects of our daily work, reflecting our commitment to preserving nature for current and future generations. We also believe it is important to be transparent and share information about our environmental programs and projects, aligning with global best practices and setting trends in Russia. Recently, we published two voluntary reports for the first time: on biodiversity conservation and water resource management. In these new documents, we have compiled the results of years of work by a large number of specialists and all concerned individuals who, together with us, care about the environment," says Elena Myakotnikova, Director of Sustainable Development and member of the Executive Committee (Board) of RUSAL.

Forest conservation and restoration

Aviation plays a significant role in forest fire prevention, as forest fires not only destroy the "green lungs" of the planet and increase carbon dioxide emissions but also pose a threat to human lives. The first Forest Climate Project (FCP) on aviation forest fire prevention was launched by an aluminium company in 2019 in the Krasnoyarsk region. It involved the recruitment and training of personnel, as well as the acquisition and depreciation of existing aviation equipment and specialized monitoring equipment for fire hazard assessment and firefighting in one of the region's remote areas.

Other nature conservation and environmental initiatives are actively supported as well. For example, within the annual environmental marathon "Green Wave," implemented in 2017, company volunteers and active citizens plant thousands of trees and shrubs in parks and squares of cities in Siberia and the Urals, where the company's enterprises are located. In 2023, more than 1,240 volunteers from 18 cities participated in the event, planting over 2,200 plants. Locations for greening were chosen for the first time based on the company's own analytical tool — the Urban Sustainable Development Responsibility Index. It allows assessing the attractiveness of cities for living and working, identifying areas with gaps that require the company's increased attention, and analyzing the effectiveness of activities conducted in this context.

Overall, over the past four years, within the forest restoration program, RUSAL has planted over 3.6 million trees in the Krasnoyarsk region, Irkutsk region, and the Republic of Komi.

Careful management of water resources

Significant attention is given to establishing a closed-loop water system, continuously increasing the proportion of reused water to reduce water intake and wastewater volume, as well as addressing the safe operation of waste disposal facilities. For instance, the aluminium company conducts an annual assessment of the impact of its productions on water bodies, modernizes its facilities, builds new ones, and reconstructs existing environmental facilities. Currently, over 90 per cent of recycled and reclaimed water is used in RUSAL's production processes, and the number of implemented projects in water resource conservation since 2004 has exceeded thirty.

In the context of caring for water bodies and ecosystems, the aluminium company engages in the rehydration of previously drained peatlands. In 2023, an agreement was signed with the Government of the Leningrad Region at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum to initiate the first such project in the region, encompassing over 2,300 peat deposits covering an area of approximately 600 thousand hectares. This is the first project of its kind in Russia, with a climate effect estimated to range from 2 to 40 tons of CO2 equivalent per hectare per year. Apart from reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the project aims to decrease the risks of natural fires, enhance biological diversity, and restore unique habitats for various, including rare, flora and fauna species.

An extensive environmental campaign called "River Day" is held annually to clean up debris and restore the shores of rivers and water bodies in the company's areas of responsibility. The Eco-Marathon has evolved from the volunteer project "Day of the Yenisei," established by the Russian Geographical Society and RUSAL in 2011 as an initiative to raise public awareness of the issues surrounding Siberia's main river. The active response to the project has turned it into an annual event. Since 2019, the project has taken place not only in Krasnoyarsk, Achinsk, and Sayanogorsk but also in other regions of Russia. Since 2011, over 300 environmental actions have been conducted, involving more than 85 thousand participants. In 2023, nearly 2,000 people took part in the event, collecting 37 tons of waste.

Biodiversity conservation

In the realm of biodiversity conservation, the primary projects and programs are associated with restoring aquatic bioregions, such as releasing young fish into water bodies, including sturgeon and grayling fry. The geography of initiatives to restore populations of rare and valuable fish species in water bodies affected by the company's activities encompasses rivers like the Chulym, Selenga, Yenisei, and others. For example, in 2023, over 35 thousand sturgeon fry were released into the Chulym River.

The preservation of rare animal species, such as the snow leopard and the forest reindeer, and the care for their habitats are also in focus.