Sept-Îles, August 29, 2013 — Aluminerie Alouette released its latest sustainable development report today, in the presence of employees and members of the community. Called 2012 An Important Milestone, the report describes the company’s results for last year. Annual sustainable development reports have become an Alouette tradition.
Once again, out of respect for the environment, Alouette has printed only a condensed version of its report. People can consult the unabridged document online, in detail and in colour, at alouette.com.
The report describes Alouette’s 2012 highlights from the perspective of the aluminum producer’s five-point corporate strategy. As President and CEO André Martel points out in his introductory message, “We set a number of new records, despite the numerous technological challenges and difficult economic context.”
Employees and culture
Continuous improvement remained a central feature of Alouette’s operations. A total of 250 continuous improvement initiatives were deployed in 2012.
Skills development was also extremely important, with 33,697 hours of training provided during the year.
Health, safety and environment
With over a million hours worked with no reportable injuries at the end of the year, Alouette improved its performance by 20% compared with 2011. Among other things, this achievement can be explained by ongoing, daily teamwork by employees, managers and subcontractors.
Company personnel continued their efforts to shrink the company’s environmental footprint and consolidate the significant improvements achieved since the start-up of the facility. Alouette not only met all regulatory requirements in 2012: in a number of areas, its performance was world class. All emissions, both at source and in the ambient air, remained below the acceptable thresholds in 2012. Greenhouse gas emissions were the lowest in the company’s history, at 1.79 tonnes of CO2equivalents per tonne of aluminum produced.
As for energy efficiency, Alouette remained a world reference, thanks to its commitment to low energy consumption.
Operational excellence
While continuing to set an example in terms of energy and carbon consumption, the largest aluminum smelter in the Americas produced 592,904 tonnes of solid aluminum.
Shareholders, partners and communities
Alouette celebrated its 20th birthday in 2012. A variety of activities and projects highlighted the company’s culture of building partnerships with all of its stakeholders. They included the highly successful fifth edition of Symposi-Al, along with the Opération Enfant Soleil and Centraide Duplessis fund-raising campaigns, which brought in over $200,000 each. Alouette was also singled out for the American Metal Market award in the Aluminum Smelter Excellence category.
Financial excellence
Deployment of the new AP40LE technology means greater productivity per smelting pot and continued leadership in terms of energy consumption. The new reduction cells will gradually replace the current pots, placing Alouette in a position of strength for the coming years.
