Alcoa

Sustainability strategy and accountability
Alcoa applies a mitigation hierarchy approach to its biodiversity targets.

Stakeholder engagement
Alcoa’s stakeholder engagement covers nature, including biodiversity, and social issues.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
Alcoa has a time-bound target for its ecosystem restoration activities, where it aims to maintain a corporate-wide running five-year average ratio of 1:1 or better for active mining disturbance (excluding long-term infrastructure) to mine rehabilitation.

Solid and air pollution
The company discloses the proportion of hazardous waste treated to reduce pollution compared to total waste, the hazardous waste diverted from disposal and the waste directed to disposal.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
The company is committed to respecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights and references ILO Convention No. 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The company requires its business relationships to identify and recognise affected Indigenous Peoples and to obtain their free, prior and informed consent regarding whether and how to carry out projects.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
The company discloses its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability impacts as well as the outcome of this process, in relation to its sustainability strategy. The company does not disclose group-wide targets on key sustainability topics for the most material parts of its value chain. The company reports consistently on progress against all its targets. No evidence was found that the company links performance criteria in senior executives’ remuneration policies to targets and objectives which cover nature, including biodiversity, and social issues. The company does not disclose whether its highest governance body has expertise regarding nature-related topics.

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses an overview of the issues raised during its stakeholder engagement activities. The company does not disclose its process for engaging with stakeholder groups beyond its materiality assessment.

Lobbying
The company does not report on its lobbying and advocacy practices on nature-related issues, nor whether these activities align with its sustainability strategy.

Impact and dependencies assessment
The company has not holistically assessed its impacts or how it depends on nature, including biodiversity. It has an opportunity to start such an assessment across its value chains, focused on quantification of its impacts or dependencies.

Key areas and species
The company discloses the locations that are in or adjacent to areas important for biodiversity within its own operations. The company does not disclose the locations of its suppliers that are in or adjacent to areas important for biodiversity. The company does not disclose species populations existing in or adjacent to its own locations. Nor does it disclose species populations existing in or adjacent to the locations of its suppliers. The company does not disclose the status according to national and international conservation lists of species identified in its own locations.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
The company does not have a commitment to ensure zero conversion. The company discloses some activities to achieve conversion-free supply chains but does not have time-bound targets to achieve conversion-free supply chains. The company does not disclose a commitment or activities to minimise ecosystem conversion. The company is not committed to restoring ecosystems. However, it discloses details and outcomes of ecosystem restoration projects in areas affected by its own operations or by its suppliers.

Resource exploitation and circularity
No evidence was found regarding the company’s efforts to work towards a circular economy or which organisms it exploits. The company has an opportunity to develop a strategy and publicly report on specific, time-bound targets. The company discloses activities to improve soil health or agrobiodiversity in its production or sourcing practices but does not have a target to improve soil health in its production or sourcing practices.

Water
The company reported a 3% decrease in water withdrawal (840.4 million cubic metres) from 2020-2021. While the company has a target to reduce the intensity of total water use from water-scarce locations by 5% by 2025 and 10% by 2030 (from a 2015 baseline), no targets were found for total reduction not tied to intensity.
The company reports how much water is withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas: water-scarce locations account for 5.3% of Alcoa’s total water use, with 44.3 million cubic metres used in 2021. The company does not engage with suppliers to reduce water withdrawal.
The company does not report a decrease in water pollution. The company discloses its processes for managing and monitoring discharge water quality. The company does not regularly report on water pollution or disclose targets to reduce water pollution. The company does not disclose a commitment to respect the right to water, nor does it disclose its processes for implementing preventive and corrective action plans for identified specific risks to the right to water and sanitation in its own operations.

Solid and air pollution
The company is reducing the production of hazardous waste but is not reducing plastic use and waste in its own operations. The company does not report on the amount of plastic waste generated and proportions directed from or to disposal. The company reports regularly on air quality parameters of emissions of harmful air pollutants. However, it does not report time-bound targets to reduce air pollutants across the most material parts of its value chain.

GHG emissions
The company’s scope 1 and 2 emissions (million metric tons of CO2e) decreased from 23.90 in 2020 to 21.80 in 2021. The company commits to achieving net zero emissions (scope 1 and 2) across its global operations by 2050, and reports progress against its target. However, the company’s scope 1 and 2 emissions reduction target is not aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory. The company is not reducing its scope 3 emissions, nor does it disclose a time-bound target to reduce its scope 3 emissions.

Invasive species
The company has not identified any activities that could lead to the introduction of invasive species in its own operations.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
The company does not show if it is committed to respecting local communities’ right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment or to zero tolerance for acts of violence, threats, intimidation or judicial harassment committed against land and environmental rights defenders.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
The company discloses its processes for identifying and recognising the rights of Indigenous Peoples when activities in its own operations may impact their rights, and it describes how it obtains Indigenous Peoples’ free, prior and informed consent. The company does not disclose a commitment to respect ownership and use of land and natural resources and related legitimate tenure rights, as set out in the relevant part(s) of the VGGTs or the IFC Performance Standards. The company does not require its business relationships to have a process to identify legitimate tenure rightsholders, paying particular attention to vulnerable or marginalised tenure rightsholders, and to negotiate with them to provide adequate compensation.

While the company discloses that it conducts due diligence in general, it has an opportunity to specify that it conducts human rights due diligence that includes a process for identifying human rights risks and impacts in its financing activities. The company also has an opportunity to describe a process for assessing the human rights risks it has identified and to disclose what it considers to be its salient human rights issues. A description of this process would include how relevant factors, such as geographical, economic and social, are considered. While the company discloses the categories of stakeholders it engages with generally on sustainability issues, it is not clear if these stakeholders are those whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities. The company engages with stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities.

The company has a publicly available policy statement which shows it is committed to respecting the health and safety of workers. The company discloses a time-bound target for paying all workers a living wage. There is no evidence that the company describes how it determines a living wage for the regions where it operates, or how it works to support the payment of a living wage by its suppliers. The company discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements. While the company states that it encourages its suppliers to respect employees’ right to freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining, it has an opportunity to describe how it works to support the practices of its suppliers in this regard.

The company discloses a tax strategy, but it is not applicable to all its operations. There is no evidence that the company describes the process for identifying its bribery and corruption risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations. However, the company includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with direct business relationships. The company outlines its approach to lobbying and political engagement in its 2022 code of conduct and ethics but does not formalise this approach in a public policy document. The company states that it does not make political contributions in its 2020 political contributions policy but does not formalise this commitment in a public policy document.