Who we are
Product stewardship
Active monitoring of the health, environmental and lifecycle factors associated with our products once they are in use serves to protect our markets and our ability to supply them. We also engage with regulators and consumers on issues arising from the use of our products.
By understanding the health and environmental impacts and benefits of our products over their complete lifecycle, we can potentially improve our processes, enhance our reputation in the market place, differentiate our products from our competitors and become a "brand of choice" for metals and minerals products. The enhanced reputation we earn by adopting a lifecycle "know your products" approach helps improved access to land, people and financial assets.
We have been able to translate our product stewardship approach into tangible business value by securing premium prices, developing ongoing engagement with customers and successfully providing scientific input to developing regulations affecting market access.
Across the Group 86 per cent of businesses had formal product stewardship programmes to address customer needs and a majority of business units engaged in supply chain activities, a significant improvement on 2006. Sixty two per cent of businesses undertook a lifecycle assessment of major products. Together with the work performed by industry associations, life cycle data is now available on all of our major products. Alcan also has a formal product stewardship programme and has completed lifecycle assessments on its major products. Alcan has also developed a regulatory programme to address emerging REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemical substances) regulations in Europe that complements the Rio Tinto REACH and Material Safety Data Sheet programmes aimed at compliance with worldwide emerging hazard classification regulations.
We are committed to research and development leading to innovative products. Rio Tinto Alcan's aluminium smelting, composite material and recycling innovations are resulting in reduced energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. In automotive applications, market opportunities continue to grow for advanced aluminium crash management systems, providing lightweighting opportunities while improving vehicle safety and vehicle performance through innovative design. For every tonne of aluminium that replaces traditional higher density materials in a vehicle today, 20 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions are avoided over the lifetime of the vehicle.
Rio Tinto Alcan is also supporting development of advanced energy saving solutions by expanding the portfolio of lightweight aluminium materials available. The high-gloss rolled aluminium sheet, Solar SurfaceTM 992, is being used in innovative parabolic solar cooker applications, designed for markets in developing regions. Approximately 20,000 parabolic cookers distributed by charitable organisations are currently in use.
Aluminium recycling requires only about five per cent of the energy required in primary aluminium production and avoids approximately 95 per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with first-generation metal production. A project is currently underway to expand capacity at Rio Tinto Alcan's Neuf-Brisach facility to recycle beverage cans in a closed-loop arrangement with can manufacturers.
