BUSINESS
BEST METAL Expert forum looks at four Rs for aluminum By Alec Jordan
PHOTO: RIO TINTO
A worker at Rio Tinto's aluminum smelting facility in Kitimat, British Columbia
Aluminum is a highly versatile material. It can be used for everything from automobile bodies to lining in milk cartons. One of its other significant benefits is that it is highly recyclable — about 73 per cent of the aluminum that has ever been produced is still in use in some form. But how can aluminum producers and businesses that use it in their products work together to contribute to a world where the non-magnetic, ductile metal plays a major role in sustainability? These questions and others were tackled on December 9, at the Rio Tinto Aluminium Japan Sustainability Forum inaugural meeting, which was held at Fukuracia Marunouchi Oazo in the Marunouchi Kitaguchi Building. Speaking at the event was an impressive line-up, which comprised:
ECO IMPACT Egrilmezer began by discussing the need for sustainability across industries: “A sustainable future is no longer something that is nice to have. It is an absolute must have.”
PHOTO: ALEC JORDAN
• Tolga Egrilmezer, vice president of Sales & Marketing at Rio Tinto • Yutaka Matsuzawa, deputy director-general of Environmental Regeneration and Material Cycles Bureau in the Ministry of the Environment • Fiona Solomon, CEO of the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI) • Nick Madden, senior vice president and chief procurement officer at Novelis, Inc. • Mark White, innovation director and automotive industry consultant at DSW Automotive • Michiya Kanai, circular economy manager at Nihon Tetra Pak K.K. • Alexander Leutwiler, procurement group manager at Nestlé Nespresso S.A.
The timing of the event was particularly apt. Just the week before, Apple Inc. had announced that it had taken delivery of its first batch of aluminum that had been made using a carbon-free process. The aluminum had been sourced through Elysis, a Montréalbased joint venture between Rio Tinto Group and Alcoa Corp.
He also remarked on the need for collabo ration to tackle the question of sustainability in the aluminum value chain: “There is no one formula to solve this issue. We have to work together as an industry along the value chain for the success of aluminum. We will each, in our own space, certainly continue to work to come up with answers, but we must come together as an industry to solve our challenges.” But he believes that endeavours such as Elysis have great potential to change the environmental impact of aluminum production. “To put it in the context of Canada alone, once we start to use Elysis’s technology, it has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by seven million tonnes [per year industry-wide] — the equivalent of effectively removing 1.8 million cars from the Earth,” he said.
The speakers responded to questions after their opening remarks.
22 THE CANADIAN | WINTER 2020
