Amsterdam’s Constellium N.V. announced new sustainability targets for the year 2020 yesterday.
The firm began its strategic direction for sustainability four years ago, establishing four key areas of focus: people, products, operations and responsible business.
“In the past years we have defined our sustainability vision, paving the way for our company to do business more responsibly,” explained the Chairperson of Constellium’s Sustainability Council Ingrid Joerg. “Building on our successful three-year sustainability program ending in 2015, we have now set new targets for 2020. We are excited to deploy our sustainability actions jointly with our customers, suppliers and other key stakeholders in an effort to strengthen the aluminium value chain now and in the future.”
According to the press release, Constellium’s expected sustainability targets for 2020 include:
- Reducing landfilled production waste by 10%;
- Further improving energy efficiency by 10%;
- Increasing safety at work and stay in the first industry quartile in safety results;
- Increasing employee satisfaction and strengthen communities in which Constellium operates;
- Fully rolling out the firm’s sustainable procurement policy.
Constellium counts the following as significant sustainability advancements achieved over the past several months and years:
- Fostered responsible use of resources with 9% increase in energy efficiency throughout the firm’s operations and signed a joint development agreement to develop energy-saving remelting technologies, with the goal of cutting energy consumption in half and increasing melting rates by 20%.
- Enhanced engagement with an average of one suggestion per employee at each site being implemented every month;
- Renewed commitment to sustainable Research & Technology;
- Defined and implemented first phase of the company’s sustainable procurement policy, including achieving the Gold level recognition by EcoVadis;
- Led industry efforts to implement a new Supplier Code of Conduct and create and ramp up the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative, sponsoring of key initiatives to increase recycling rate of beverage cans.
In addition to analyzing the company’s first three-year strategic plan and laying out new targets for 2020, the report also highlights some of the major investments and expansions taking place at company facilities across the world. In 2015, Constellium completed the acquisition of private aluminium sheet producer Wise Metals. The acquisition provided the company with “immediate access to 450,000 metric tons of hot mill capacity from the widest strip mill in North American with potential to add incremental capacities, positioning us on the can market and preparing for Body-in-White capabilities expansion”.
Meanwhile, Constellium’s Aeral ™ is considered a new aluminium solution to aerosols, allowing up to 30% weight saving compared to more traditional impact extruded containers. Using the Drawn and Ironed (D&I) technology deployed to produce beverage cans, Aeral ™ will upkeep the same level of performance in terms of ductility and pressure resistance as traditional aerosol containers.
Constellium, based in Amsterdam, was founded in 2011 when Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto sold Alcan Engineered Products to Apollo Management (51%) and FSI (10%). The firm produces rolled and extruded aluminium products from various alloys. The firm brought in €3.7 billion of revenue in 2014.