The advent of the Paris Agreement in 2015 made it very clear to the energy-intensive industries of the world that it was high time to curb their carbon emissions. Factories and refineries were warned about the severe effects of carbon earlier, but with this agreement, the entire world came to actual terms with the truth about nature's depreciating condition. Instantly, many big organisations started mapping their journey toward carbon-less material or component production. Among them, aluminium plays a considerable part since it is a fully integrated industry for mining, energy-intensive refineries and product manufacturing facilities. The prominent players in the sector had to take a well-calculated step if they wanted to transform themselves into green industries. The need for renewable energy then surged, and many facilities under big players switched to various alternative methods of sourcing energy for aluminium production and acquiring low-carbon raw materials for the entire value chain.

The United Nation's idea of achieving 45% lower carbon emissions by 2030 and Net Zero by 2050 will be in vain if influential sectors refuse to join the journey. Voluntary efforts are increasing now that society has recognized how beneficial this is to our survival. Once the big players transform toward cutting down greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, smaller industries will get inspired to do the same, giving rise to an environment-conscious society.

Some of the major players in the sector with notable, game-changing policies are listed below:

RUSAL

At the beginning of this year, Russian aluminium giant RUSAL released its annual sustainability report for 2021, bearing the main title, "Human focus". RUSAL has been drawing out goals for further E.S.G. business transformation after declaring a strategy to achieve Net Zero by 2050 in February 2021. Not only in papers but in reality, RUSAL initiated the first phase of its Taishet aluminium smelter (TaAZ) powered by Siberian hydropower in 2021, taking the primary step toward sustainable aluminium production. RUSAL also announced an ecological modernisation programme for its aluminium smelters in Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Bratsk and Novokuznetsk. RUSAL successfully lowered its priority pollutant emissions by 9.7 thousand tonnes in comparison with 2018 during the four years participation phase of the federal project "Clean Air", already achieving 40% of its set target for 2024. RUSAL also follows the protocols of the International Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (A.S.I.) and flaunts 13 of its certified facilities under the same. The Russian aluminium organisation can be regarded as one of the founding members of the National E.S.G. Alliance, which was flagged by 28 of Russia's most prominent corporations to develop a sustainable economic model for the entire aluminium value chain. 

NORSK HYDRO

The Norwegian aluminium producer located in Oslo, Hydro, has been contemplating the production of its low-carbon aluminium for a few years. In 2022, it launched CIRCAL 100R, with the first 130 tonnes produced at its Clervaux-Luxemburg recycling factory. This is the company's first venture towards commercial production, where 130 tonnes were extracted from 100% post-consumer scrap. This is a tiebreaker compared to its previously developed Hydro CIRCAL extrusion ingots that released 2.3kg CO2 per kg aluminium and were made of 75% post-consumer scrap. The enterprise is moving toward more investment in recycling to augment the company's presence in the low-carbon aluminium sector. Hydro has also set a goal to double the post-consumer scrap recycling by 2025 while heightening annual recycling EBITDA by NOK 0.7 to 1.1 billion.

RIO TINTO

An Anglo-Australian mining head, Rio Tinto has been engrossed all throughout the year with various sustainability initiatives, among which the most prominent move by the company was to get registered with the First Movers Coalition (F.M.C.) as a responsible aluminium industry participant. The F.M.C., as the A.S.I., is an international conglomerate where we find various participating companies from the entire value chain abiding by the environmental rules laid down by the association. On the other hand, Rio Tinto was found to lower the carbon emissions from its sea fleet in addition to agreeing on a sustainable transition of materials required by automobile giants such as Ford Motors or the Volvo Group. Rio Tinto initiated investor meetings where possibilities of cutting down half of Scope 1 & 2 emissions by 2030 and achieving net zero emissions by 2050 were discussed.

ALCOA

The internationally acclaimed industry leader in bauxite, alumina and aluminium products, Alcoa Corporation, has recently been acknowledged as a propagator of environmental, social and governance (E.S.G.) policies with its introduction to the S&P Dow Sustainability Indices (DJSI). The DJSI was established in 1999, and Alcoa can be regarded as one of the best-performing ESG-minded companies under its provisions. This year, Alcoa's E.S.G. barometer measured almost 96 percentile allocating it to the top spot among all of Alcoa's industry peers. Alcoa came first in the economic, environmental and governance categories, topping over almost 13,000 global companies that were evaluated. Moreover, U.S.A.'s Alcoa partnered on a Sector Transition Strategy (S.T.S.) this year with the International Aluminium Institute (I.A.I.) and Mission Possible Partnership (M.P.P.), which narrates the probabilities for decarbonisation in the aluminium sector aligned with achieving a 1.5°C global warming proportion.

CAPRAL ALUMINIUM

Australia's largest extruder and aluminium product distributor, Capral, vouched to achieve Net Zero by 2050. To attain its set goals, Capral has introduced revolutionary technological alternatives to curtail emissions in Scope 1 and Scope 2 of the Net Zero provisions. The scientific community has been unapologetically vocal about the necessity of achieving Net Zero worldwide to keep global warming at 1.5°C to make a livelihood on earth possible. Capral will need to divert its remaining GHG emissions to make its dream come true. The organisation realises the importance of the United Nations (U.N.'s) Sustainable Development Goals (S.D.G.s) as a common pathway assuring the world is safe for human dwelling. To further strengthen its position, Capral introduced LocAl®, a lower-carbon primary aluminium option available across the company's locally manufactured extruded aluminium products.

CENTURY ALUMINIUM

For its wholly owned subsidiary, Norurál Grundartangi ehf ("Norurál"), Chicago's Century Aluminium has already opted for green electricity. Two of Qair's wind farms in Iceland, with a total installed capacity of 200 MW, will run the Grundartangi smelter. Century boasts that Grundartangi produces Natur-Al™ aluminium, which has one of the lowest CO2 footprints in the world, using Iceland's 100% renewable energy resources. Due to its natural terrain, Iceland is a power hub for green energy, and 80% of its generated power is transferred to Rio Tinto, Alcoa and Century Aluminium, creating a low-carbon, green inventory for these aluminium giants. Due to the ongoing energy crisis laid by the Russia-Ukraine dilemma and the soaring energy prices, Century Aluminium, in June this year, had decided to temporarily halt its operations in Hawesville, Kentucky, one of the largest smelters in North America, producing military-grade aluminium. Norurál, on the other hand, in October signed a US$1.85 million deal with DTE, an Icelandic metal innovator, to utilise its flagship chemical composition analysis solution enhancing the four skimming units of the new low-carbon billet casthouse. To meet the demand for Norurál's low-carbon Natur-Al™ aluminium globally, Century Aluminium has taken a pre-calculated step in making this investment.

VEDANTA ALUMINIUM

On National Energy Conservation Day, the largest aluminium producer in India, Vedanta Aluminium, a subsidiary of Vedanta Limited, released its Sustainable Development (S.D.) Report for F.Y. 2021–22, called 'Accelerating to Net Zero.' The report gave a brief discourse of the organisation's performance regarding critical sustainability dimensions, which consist of economic performance, supply chain management, climate change & energy management, air quality & emissions control, water management, biodiversity management, waste to wealth, safety, health & well-being, people excellence, community welfare, etc. Moreover, under the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosures, or TCFD framework, Vedanta Aluminium has released its first climate change report titled "Road to Net Zero Carbon." Through this report, the corporation wants to enlighten its stakeholders about business prospects, commitment, and performance in climate change. A subsidiary of Vedanta, Balco, like its parent organisation, has successfully cut down the use of fossil fuels in its production of aluminium. The company has successfully applied biofuel to produce aluminium in its smelters, which is a brilliant way to show respect to its own emission goals and the parallel targets of reaching Net zero in 2050 by its parent organisation, Vedanta Aluminium.

NOVELIS

A subsidiary of Hindalco, Novelis solidified its position among the companies moving toward net zero by launching its flagship HRC57S® mid-year, an innovative, anodising quality aluminium alloy containing more than 90 per cent recycled scrap. Previously, the Novelis HRC73A® had been selected for the prestigious German Innovations award 2022. To meet customer demand for sustainable solutions, the company has introduced Novelis AL:sust, a 'Novelis Europe Specialities' family brand showcasing breakthrough low-carbon aluminium products with a recycled content of at least 80 per cent. Novelis HRC57S® and HRC73A® are the two primary members of the AL:sust family, with more products to be added for numerous end-user applications.

EMIRATES GLOBAL ALUMINIUM (EGA)

One of the largest organisations in the U.A.E., excluding the oil sector, and one of the biggest producers of aluminium in the world, Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) joined the First Movers Coalition in November 2022, associating itself with an international board to achieve Net zero by 2050. In 2021, EGA became the first company in the world to use solar power to produce aluminium, marketed under the brand, CelestiAL. As early as May 2022, the company actively participated in the 50th-anniversary meeting of the International Aluminium Institute (I.A.I.), advocating the shift to greener energy for aluminium production.

 ALUMINIUM BAHRAIN (ALBA)

Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba) is the world's largest aluminium producer ex-China, with a production of more than 1.561 million per annum (2021). On March 28 this year, Alba signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (M.H.I.) Group and its engineering company, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engineering, Ltd. (MHIENG), to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted from the smelting process at one of its plants. Following this significant collaboration, on June 20, Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba) propelled a new Environment, Social and Governance (E.S.G.) campaign across all its plants to reassertion the company's six priority areas according to its E.S.G. Roadmap. These steps are illustrations that explain Bahrain's undulated commitment to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Aluminium can be infinitely recycled, and it can retain its original properties on transformation, thus creating a circular economy. But the production of primary aluminium is extremely energy intensive. So if these companies can continue to produce aluminium with green or renewable energy and develop raw material from post-consumer scrap, a massive amount of carbon dioxide emission into the air can be avoided.