ALRO Group in 2019: levels of carbon intensity and indirect emissions were below the European average, over 45 initiatives for local communities and its employees

ALRO Slatina, one of the largest vertically integrated aluminium producers in Europe, measured by production capacity, published its third Consolidated Sustainable Value Report for 2019, which provides a detailed overview of the Group’s efforts around the key environmental, social and governance areas that are important to its investors, employees, customers and other stakeholders.

“In 2019 we continued to implement measures, to create systems and to make progress in integrating sustainability into everything we do, with the ambition of becoming a green factory, innovative and sustainable, and of achieving our goal of near to zero emissions and waste with the help of the state-of-the-art technologies”, said Marian Nastase, Chairman of the Board of Directors of ALRO. “In the next period, we will focus on increasing the production mix in favour of high and very high value-added products and continuing investing in energy efficiency”, added Marian Nastase.

The Group continued in 2019 to implement energy efficiency programs and to integrate circular economy principles in its business through extensive R&D investments, two example being ALUM’s project to transform red mud into a viable product for other industries and ALRO’s partnership with Rio Tinto Aluminium Pechiney regarding the relining of its pots with the AP12LE technology, which is expected to significantly increase the Company’s energy efficiency.

Following the same direction of increasing efficiency and reducing the effects of the Company’s activity on the environment and capitalizing on new opportunities, ALRO continued to increase the volume of recycled and re-melted aluminium scrap, reaching a level of 400,000 tonnes of processed scrap since 2013 and a level of 10 million tonnes of electrolytic aluminium produced since 1965, when it started production. One of the company’s main goals is to increase the total processing capacity of its Eco-Recycling Facility to 100,000 tonnes per year. By processing the aluminium scrap and increasing the recycling rate, ALRO reduces its dependence on the supplied electricity, as the energy consumption for the supplementary recycled quantities decreases by 95% compared with the electrolytic aluminium. In this way, ALRO is increasing its competitiveness by using the best available technologies, which are in line with the EU requirements for creation of one circular, sustainable aluminium industry.

Through investments in product technology, ALRO has achieved an energy efficiency of 99% for electrolysis technology and according to studies, it will be in top 4 at European level in terms of energy efficiency in the electrolysis area. As part of the same program to streamline activity and reuse resources, the Company has implemented various projects that have improved the water management system, optimized water production and treatment and made it possible to reuse almost 90% of used water.

As one of the pillars of the Romanian economy, ALRO Group bears a particular responsibility for the environment as well as for the society. For this reason, management has a holistic approach to sustainability along the entire value chain. Therefore, ALRO seeks to ensure an ethical, safe and healthy local business environment, having over 3,600 suppliers at Group level. The Group’s sourcing activity annually generates significant expenditures that are mainly redirected locally, thus ensuring the wealth of the communities where the Group activates. Moreover, in the COVID-19 context, the Group reaffirmed its commitment towards the society, employees and their families and made several donations in money and medical equipment to both local and national institutions involved in preventing and fighting against the coronavirus spreading.