Why is ENERGY MIX the decisive factor for aluminium’s cradle-to-gate footprint?
The aluminium industry has long sold itself as the ‘metal of the future’, well known for being lightweight, infinitely recyclable, and indispensable for decarbonisation in transport, construction and packaging. Yet, when scrutinised from a life-cycle perspective, the path from bauxite to ingot reveals an environmental footprint that is both energy-heavy and highly variable depending on geography. A landmark cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) conducted by the International Aluminium Institute (IAI) brings forth one blunt truth, i.e., electricity supply is the single biggest determinant of aluminium’s environmental impact.
Image source: https://www.researchgate.net/
The study, built on IAI’s global survey data and modelled using GaBi software, measured six core impact categories that includes global warming potential, acidification, eutrophication, ozone depletion, fossil energy depletion, and photochemical smog creation, along with water scarcity. The results provided a global dataset (GLO) and a rest-of-world (RoW) dataset that excludes China, allowing the role of the world’s largest producer to be measured in stark relief.
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