Novelis Takes Home Keep America Beautiful's 2009 'Vision for America' Award

Novelis was awarded Keep America Beautiful's 2009 Vision for America Award at a gala dinner October 21 attended by senior Aluminum Association staff.

The Vision for America Award is presented annually to corporate leaders whose personal and corporate commitment have significantly enhanced civic, environmental, and social stewardship throughout the United States. Keep America Beautiful honored Novelis for the corporation’s leadership in environmental issues, employee volunteerism, and for its efforts to promote recycling in America and worldwide.

“I’m honored to accept the Vision for America Award on behalf of the 12,300 employees of Novelis,” said Philip Martens, President and COO, upon receiving the 24th annual award. “The recycling of beverage cans is an important part of our business; however, it is also a simple action individuals can take every day that greatly impacts the well-being of our communities and future generations.”

“Through its global recycling programs, Novelis has demonstrated its commitment to increasing access to and advancing the public’s awareness of recycling,” said Keep America Beautiful President and CEO Matthew McKenna. “With substantial savings of energy, carbon emissions, and natural resources, recycling is the best way for all individuals to play a role in improving the environment.”

Beyond recycling and volunteerism, Novelis is committed to reducing its energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.  Beginning in 2005, Novelis established a set of environmental sustainability objectives focused on three annual measures:

• - Reduce landfill waste generation by 6 percent per year
• - Improve energy efficiency by 2 percent per year
• - Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2 percent per year

As part of these commitments, which extend through 2012, every Novelis facility is mandated to develop an energy-saving initiative each year.

Since 2006, Novelis has supported federal greenhouse gas reduction and energy efficiency initiatives as a Climate Leaders Partner with the U.S. EPA. Through this industry-government partnership, Novelis further developed an emissions inventory monitoring plan to measure and validate its progress against its stated goals. A dozen Novelis facilities in the U.S. and Canada participate in this program, four of which have recycling operations.

Through its R&D and Continuous Improvement teams, Novelis works with its customers to find ways to reduce the amount of aluminum that goes into its products, maximize recycling and increase recycled content. For example, improvements in the manufacturing process allow for “downgauging,” or using a thinner sheet of aluminum. The amount of aluminum required to produce a beverage can shrank almost 30 percent from 1980 to 2000 while maintaining the necessary level of durability.