New customer values with new environmental footprint accounting

Stena Aluminium has chosen the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP) for reporting its environmental footprint. The company has gained important insights into how to reduce its environmental impact further. The reporting also responds to the increasing requests from industries that use the company's products.

Stena Aluminium produces all its aluminium products from recycled aluminium. The environmental and climate benefits are very significant when compared to aluminium made from virgin materials. By working with GHGP, the company can also work on its impact in the right direction.

The GHGP contains three scopes and is one of the tools companies can work with to understand their impact and focus their efforts to reduce emissions best.

Stena Aluminium has looked at all its operations, from incoming material to the delivery of aluminium ingots to the customer.

Given that the company is smelting metals to produce new aluminium ingots, it was no surprise that the LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas) used to heat smelting furnaces accounts for a significant share of the company's impact, 22%.

A Stena Aluminium employee inspecting the material

More surprisingly, silicon alone accounts for 39% of our company's total impact. Therefore, we should strive to use more secondary aluminium in end-customer products and look at ways of reducing the share of silicon in alloys.

"We are all aware of the alarming global climate challenge. This kind of data helps us make informed decisions. It's only a matter of time before legislation requires all companies to report how they and their products impact our planet throughout the product lifecycle," says Erik Petré, Sales and Marketing Manager at Stena Aluminium.

Stena Aluminium believes in transparency regarding GHGP information and how the company will continue to reduce its impact.

The company shows its impact as kg CO2e* per kilo of aluminium delivered, including all three scopes, excluding upstream flows after it arrives at our customers. Our customers receive aluminium ingots with an impact of 0.7 kg CO2e/kg, based on GHGP calculations. Customers can then add their figures on top.

Empowering informed decisions through transparent sustainability data

"We are pleased that our customers are starting to ask for this data. We are happy to provide them and encourage more companies to both ask for the impacts and start understanding their own," says Erika Richard, Sustainability Manager at Stena Aluminium.

Stena Aluminium is working on the GHGP report for the 2020 financial year. The company can already see what various activities have led to CO2e reduction compared to the 2019 report.

When calculating the company's emissions, some assumptions have been used, data from various institutes, information from our suppliers, and actual data regarding energy and materials consumed.

"The Green House Gas Protocol is one way of trying to understand climate impact. Although the models behind some of the figures are not perfect, it is an essential step in the right direction. I want to encourage more industries to look at what they can do. Customers are, of course, welcome to get in touch if they want to discuss this important work!" says Erik Petré.

*CO2e = CO2 equivalent. To get all greenhouse gases comparable to each other, the gases, except CO2, are multiplied by its own global warming potential (GWP). For example: Methane gas, CH4, have a GWP of 25 meaning 1 kg of CH4 is equal to 25 kg CO2.