In addition to climate change and energy consumption, our main environmental challenges are related to waste, emissions and biodiversity.
In 2011, Hydro acquired bauxite mining and alumina refining activities in Pará in Brazil. These operations include the handling of significant amounts of tailings and bauxite residue, also known as red mud. Biodiversity, water and waste management have thus become a more important part of our agenda.
Hydro's environmental strategy, which was revised last year, aims at
· Reducing our environmental footprint
· Helping customers reduce their footprint
· Improving aluminium as a material
In addition to the existing climate strategy and our recycling strategy, we have decided to prioritize four areas:
Ecosystems and biodiversity Waste and efficient resource use Emissions Product stewardship
We have established corporate environmental ambitions, and performance indicators for our production plants. The indicators vary between plants due to the inherent differences between, for example, large primary aluminium production plants and small extrusion plants. They help us measure status and improvements, and enable us to concentrate on the most important issues.
