Sustainable packaging: Alcoa Joins Department of Energy Leader Initiative

-- Packaging Digest, 6/15/2010 12:01:34 PM

Alcoa has committed to reducing the energy intensity of its downstream manufacturing operations in the United States by 25 percent by 2020 as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Save Energy Now Leader initiative.

Save Energy Now is a national initiative aimed at reducing industrial energy intensity by providing U.S. companies with access to technical support and expertise to help them take steps toward becoming more energy efficient.

“Alcoa has long recognized that energy efficiency is central to our success as a company,” said Rick Bowen, President, Alcoa Energy. “We are pleased to partner with the Department of Energy not only to improve our own performance, but to provide a benchmark that could help other companies reach their goals.”

Leader companies serve as role models for others interested in energy efficiency, according to the Department of Energy, providing a model for strategies to reduce costs and improve environmental performance. Alcoa has placed all U.S. manufacturing locations other than aluminum smelting in the program and pledged to reduce energy intensity 25 percent by 2020 from a 2005 baseline.

These downstream manufacturing locations produce a variety of products, such as turbine fan blades for jet engines, aluminum sheet used to make cans and Reynobond®, an aluminum composite used on the exteriors of commercial buildings. Alcoa’s U.S. aluminum smelters have separate goals.

To reach its energy goals, Alcoa has formed a Global Energy Efficiency Team to coordinate energy efficiency activities across the company and share best practices.

Alcoa was one of five companies that recently joined the voluntary Leader initiative, which now numbers more than 60 companies. Joining Alcoa in the leader program are CalPortland, Glendora, CA; Eastman Chemical Company, Kingsport, TN; Raytheon Corporation, Waltham, MA; and Lufkin Industries, Lufkin, TX.

SOURCE: Alcoa

.