WESTMINSTER, Colo.,
June 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/
-- Ball Corporation (NYSE: BLL), one of the world's
leading suppliers of sustainable aluminum packaging and aerospace
technologies, today announced 2030 sustainability goals focused on
enhancing product stewardship and social impact to create value for
stakeholders, together with a vision for how industry partners can
collaborate to achieve a fully circular aluminum beverage packaging
system.
Ball's new global sustainability goals, which will drive
performance across the life cycle of its products, include a
commitment to achieving net zero carbon emissions before 2050 and
transitioning to 100% renewable electricity by 2030. The goals also
include ensuring all aluminum is purchased from certified
sustainable sources and converting 80% of Ball's global beverage
can volumes to its lightweight STARcan designs.
Complementing the company's longstanding ESG programs, Ball is
expanding its disclosure of existing D&I and social programs
with specific 2025 goals for every region and business. For
example, Ball Beverage Packaging South America has committed to
increasing the proportion of non-white employees in new hires from
31% to 47%, and Ball Beverage Packaging EMEA plans to increase
representation of women in manufacturing roles by achieving a 25%
recruitment rate of women for these positions.
In addition to its sustainability goals, Ball also shared
'Toward A Perfect Circle,' an industry vision which sets out how,
by working together, beverage brands, retailers, and aluminum
beverage packaging manufacturers and their suppliers could make
aluminum cans, bottles and cups – the world's most recycled
beverage containers –surpass a 90% recycling rate from today's rate
of 69% and increase the global average recycled content rate to as
much as 85%. Today, recycled aluminum uses only 5% of the energy
compared to using virgin material, and recycled cans have the
potential to be back on the shelf in as little as 60 days.
To achieve this vision, Ball will drive multi-stakeholder action
that includes developing a low-carbon roadmap for the aluminum
beverage packaging sector. The company will also advocate for
investment in infrastructure and technology to support a more
effective and efficient recycling system in the regions where it
operates. Ball will work with partners to publish this multi-region
recycling roadmap and carbon pathway plan within the next
year.
"As a world-leading manufacturer of aluminum beverage packaging,
Ball has a responsibility to our stakeholders and the planet to
improve the environmental performance, social impact and economic
returns of our business and take a leading role in driving
industry-wide solutions to the climate crisis," said
John A. Hayes, chairman and CEO
of Ball. "Our customers are seeking low-carbon and truly
circular packaging options as they work to fulfill net zero targets
and meet growing consumer demand for sustainable products.
Infinitely recyclable aluminum cans, cups and bottles are the
solution. We look forward to further enhancing our products and
developing an industry-wide circularity roadmap in collaboration
with our partners."
Ball will be engaging with key stakeholders across the aluminum
beverage packaging sector to develop and promote the best methods,
policies and actions to achieve a fully circular aluminum beverage
packaging system.
"Ball is playing an important role leading the sector towards a
better world. Surpassing a 90% recycling rate and 85% in recycled
content will require teamwork across the sector and can have a
phenomenal impact for our planet. We are also thrilled to see
commitments Ball made in their sustainability goals which also
support a path toward net zero carbon. All these objectives are
deeply aligned with our vision and will have all of our support to
become a reality." – Felipe
Baruque, Vice President, Global Procurement &
Sustainability Packaging, Anheuser-Busch InBev
"As the world's largest recycler of aluminum, Novelis is proud
to partner with Ball to advance a shared vision for sustainable
aluminum beverage packaging and support their efforts to foster
more long-term industry collaboration. Having recently announced
our own ambitious sustainability targets to become a net
carbon-neutral company by 2050 or sooner and reduce our carbon
footprint 30 percent by 2026, we are committed to working together
with Ball and other members of the value chain to continue to
expand the use of lightweight, infinitely recyclable aluminum to
achieve a more circular economy." – Steve Fisher, CEO Novelis Inc.
"Today with our own 4.0 technologies, BeyondAlea®,
our aluminum recycling furnaces are already able obtain high metal
yields with minimum energy in fully automated plants. As a leading
designer and manufacturer of aluminum recycling technologies, we
welcome Ball's circular ambitions and we are ready to support the
industry towards the circularity transition towards 2030." –
José Domingo Berasategui, Managing
Director, GHI
"It's time for governments to lay the legal framework for
effective collection and real recycling. The focus should be on
quantity collected with the highest quality to easily enable
circular systems – packaging with many lives – reusable and
recyclable. The cumulative benefits from circular systems, like
deposit return, mean less litter and carbon emissions; more
valuable resources for local recyclers which means more jobs; and
giving producers the opportunity to include large amounts of
recycled content in their new packaging." – Clarissa
Moriawski, CEO and Co-founder, ReLoop
"TOMRA's technologies help to drive deposit return systems by
making beverage container redemption easy for consumers, while
reducing costs in a shared-mission to achieve more than 90%
collection and superior material quality that enables used
containers to be turned into new containers over and over again.
With the right recycling policies, it is possible to achieve these
high levels of circularity. We are pleased to work with Ball and
partners across the industry toward greater sustainability in
beverage packaging, now and in the future." – Chuck Riegle, Senior Vice President,
Governmental Affairs & DRS Compliance, TOMRA Systems
ASA
For more information about Ball's sustainability goals –
including its commitment to product stewardship, climate
leadership, diversity and inclusion and long-term economic value
creation – please visit Ball's website.
About Ball Corporation
Ball Corporation supplies
innovative, sustainable aluminum packaging solutions for beverage,
personal care and household products customers, as well as
aerospace and other technologies and services primarily for the
U.S. government. Ball Corporation and its subsidiaries employ
21,500 people worldwide and reported 2020 net sales of $11.8
billion. For more information, visit www.ball.com, or connect
with us on Facebook or Twitter.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains
"forward-looking" statements concerning future events and financial
performance. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "estimates,"
"believes," and similar expressions typically identify
forward-looking statements, which are generally any statements
other than statements of historical fact. Such statements are based
on current expectations or views of the future and are subject to
risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results or events
to differ materially from those expressed or implied. You should
therefore not place undue reliance upon any forward-looking
statements and any such statements should be read in conjunction
with, and qualified in their entirety by, the cautionary statements
referenced below. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly
update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a
result of new information, future events or otherwise. Key factors,
risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and
results to be different are summarized in filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, including Exhibit 99 in our
Form 10-K, which are available on our website and at www.sec.gov.
Additional factors that might affect: a) our packaging segments
include product capacity, supply, and demand constraints and
fluctuations and changes in consumption patterns; availability/cost
of raw materials, equipment, and logistics; competitive packaging,
pricing and substitution; changes in climate and weather; footprint
adjustments and other manufacturing changes, including the startup
of new facilities and lines; failure to achieve synergies,
productivity improvements or cost reductions; unfavorable mandatory
deposit or packaging laws; customer and supplier consolidation;
power and supply chain interruptions; changes in major customer or
supplier contracts or loss of a major customer or supplier;
political instability and sanctions; currency controls; changes in
foreign exchange or tax rates; and tariffs, trade actions, or other
governmental actions, including business restrictions and
shelter-in-place orders in any country or jurisdiction affecting
goods produced by us or in our supply chain, including imported raw
materials; b) our aerospace segment include funding, authorization,
availability and returns of government and commercial contracts;
and delays, extensions and technical uncertainties affecting
segment contracts; c) the Company as a whole include those listed
above plus: the extent to which sustainability-related
opportunities arise and can be capitalized upon; changes in senior
management, succession, and the ability to attract and retain
skilled labor; regulatory action or issues including tax,
environmental, health and workplace safety, including U.S. FDA and
other actions or public concerns affecting products filled in our
containers, or chemicals or substances used in raw materials or in
the manufacturing process; technological developments and
innovations; the ability to manage cyber threats; litigation;
strikes; disease; pandemic; labor cost changes; rates of return on
assets of the Company's defined benefit retirement plans; pension
changes; uncertainties surrounding geopolitical events and
governmental policies both in the U.S. and in other countries,
including policies, orders, and actions related to COVID-19;
reduced cash flow; interest rates affecting our debt; and
successful or unsuccessful joint ventures, acquisitions and
divestitures, and their effects on our operating results and
business generally.
View original content to download
multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ball-corporation-announces-new-sustainability-goals-shares-vision-to-achieve-a-circular-economy-for-aluminum-beverage-packaging-301321558.html
SOURCE Ball Corporation