Hindalco – the World's Most Sustainable Aluminium Company

What enabled Hindalco to attain the leadership position of aluminium industry leader in the S&P Dow Jones Sustainability Indices for 2020? Here's a quick overview

Hindalco Industries Ltd., the metals flagship company of the Aditya Birla Group, was recently ranked as the aluminium industry leader for its sustainability performance in the 2020 edition of the S&P Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) rankings. Hindalco got a total score of 75 points as against the industry average of 51. Just as significant, it is the only Indian company to be recognised as an industry leader.

This global metals major has come a long way in its sustainability journey, through initiatives that consciously future-proof its business.

A ‘Resilient, Reliable and Responsible’ Hindalco

Ms. Deeksha Vats, Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) at Aditya Birla Group and former CSO for Hindalco, explains the fundamental approach: “The term sustainability is often loosely used and is associated with environmental or green initiatives alone. But in essence, sustainability is the ability of the business to sustain its operations over time and against external changes.”

Over the last few years, Hindalco has sharpened its focus on sustainable mining practices, energy conservation, recycling, environment-friendly disposal of industrial wastes, safety practices, socio-economic development of the communities around its plant and empowerment of employees.

One of the most important pioneering steps taken by Hindalco is the sustainable solution for red mud utilisation. Red mud is a by-product of aluminium manufacturing and normally occupies vast tracts of land for storage. This is an issue that concerns the global industry. Hindalco introduced a circular approach by partnering with UltraTech Cement Ltd. The red mud from three Hindalco refineries is now used to replace virgin material such as laterite and lithomarge in cement manufacturing. This also helps UltraTech reduce its dependence on mined natural resources.

A few years ago, Hindalco set about articulating what sustainability means for the company. That message was defined as ‘Resilience, Reliability and Responsibility’. The company’s resilience reflects in its futuristic product portfolio and its efforts to decouple from the London Metals Exchange and commodity prices. Reliability is assessed in terms of supplier and customer trust and responsibility reflects in its actions towards the environment and people.

Another crucial aspect is embedding sustainability in the way the company designs, procures, makes, sells and looks at the entire value chain within manufacturing – from operating and maintaining smelters to procuring energy.

More important for the organisation is the understanding that sustainability is everyone’s responsibility. Ms. Vats puts it clearly: “From the Operations team, to legal, Safety, Risk, Marketing and HR — everybody has to come together and contribute to making the company sustain in the time to come. It is this approach that has led the company to emerge and be recognised as an industry leader.”

Sustainability at the Group

Hindalco’s achievements have been mirrored in several Aditya Birla Group companies that have set industry benchmarks in sustainability.

Birla Cellulose has been recognised for its efforts in water conservation, energy conservation and it also reaches the EU BAT standard. It was ranked No.1 globally in Canopy's Hot Button Report 2020, which ranks global viscose producers on sustainable forestry practices/wood sourcing, next generation solutions in alternate feed stocks and supply chain traceability.

Grasim Industries Ltd. was ranked by ET and Futurescape Responsible Business Rankings and the CSR Journal of India as among Top 10 Indian companies for Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility. Birla Carbon has achieved Gold ratings for its initiatives in sustainability.

The milestones set by Group Businesses are aligned with the Aditya Birla Group’s sustainability vision, framework and policies. The focus across businesses is on implementation through effective collaboration. For the Group, the essence of success in enterprise sustainability lies in coming together of sustainability-minded professionals at a cross-functional level within each business and at the Group.