Sustainability
What the Can of the Future Looks Like, and How to Get There
November 11, 2024
The 2024 Global Aluminium Can Sustainability Summit, held during London Metal Exchange (LME) Week this year, served as a pivotal gathering for industry leaders, sustainability advocates, and key stakeholders in the aluminium can sector.
The summit was sponsored by Ball Corporation, CANPACK, Envases, Ardagh Metal Packaging and Crown Holdings. The International Aluminium Institute (IAI) and the Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI) partnered on convening the event along with Abralatas (Brazil) and Metal Packaging Europe. The event welcomed beverage companies, aluminium can manufacturers, can sheet producers, aluminium producers, and industry associations.
The summit aimed to address challenges and opportunities for the aluminum beverage can to build on its leading sustainability position. Key topics discussed at the summit included recycling policies and technologies, strategies for reducing carbon emissions, sustainability claims, and how the can industry value chain has worked together and could work together to create more efficient, standardized, and meaningful reporting. Importantly, a standardized methodology for calculating recycled content that has cross industry agreement was presented and related guidance is expected to be published in Q1 2025.
Björn Kulmann speaking on a panel at the Summit. Credit: James Archer Photography
Björn Kulmann, Vice President Sustainability, attended a session titled ‘Emissions Profile of Today’s Aluminium Can Versus the Aluminium Can of the Future’ and shared Ball’s work regarding reducing the emissions profile of the cans it makes. He emphasized the importance of moving towards a fully decarbonized can manufacturing plant, continued investment in lightweighting, and value chain collaboration to decarbonize recycled and primary aluminum production.
Björn noted that he’s excited about the level of transformation that the value chain partnerships are committed to problem-solving such as the circular can end project.
Carey Causey speaking to Summit attendees on Day Two. Credit: James Archer Photography
In her opening remarks for the second day, Carey Causey, Ball’s Chief Growth Officer, recognized the unique opportunity the attendees of the Summit have to unify and find solutions to challenges that the aluminium can faces. She urged everyone in the room to maintain a collaborative mindset and reminded them that together, can makers are more powerful than the sustainability challenges they encounter.
In Ball’s Climate Transition Plan, the company has laid out its plan for achieving 55% of carbon reductions from Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions by 2030, including increasing the recycling content of cans to 85%, enabled by the implementation of financially viable and effective collection schemes. The conversations had and fostered at the Summit support that aluminum is a winning substrate – and Ball is all in on it.
The summit was sponsored by Ball Corporation, CANPACK, Envases, Ardagh Metal Packaging and Crown Holdings. The International Aluminium Institute (IAI) and the Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI) partnered on convening the event along with Abralatas (Brazil) and Metal Packaging Europe. The event welcomed beverage companies, aluminium can manufacturers, can sheet producers, aluminium producers, and industry associations.
The summit aimed to address challenges and opportunities for the aluminum beverage can to build on its leading sustainability position. Key topics discussed at the summit included recycling policies and technologies, strategies for reducing carbon emissions, sustainability claims, and how the can industry value chain has worked together and could work together to create more efficient, standardized, and meaningful reporting. Importantly, a standardized methodology for calculating recycled content that has cross industry agreement was presented and related guidance is expected to be published in Q1 2025.
Björn Kulmann speaking on a panel at the Summit. Credit: James Archer Photography
Björn Kulmann, Vice President Sustainability, attended a session titled ‘Emissions Profile of Today’s Aluminium Can Versus the Aluminium Can of the Future’ and shared Ball’s work regarding reducing the emissions profile of the cans it makes. He emphasized the importance of moving towards a fully decarbonized can manufacturing plant, continued investment in lightweighting, and value chain collaboration to decarbonize recycled and primary aluminum production.
Björn noted that he’s excited about the level of transformation that the value chain partnerships are committed to problem-solving such as the circular can end project.
Carey Causey speaking to Summit attendees on Day Two. Credit: James Archer Photography
In her opening remarks for the second day, Carey Causey, Ball’s Chief Growth Officer, recognized the unique opportunity the attendees of the Summit have to unify and find solutions to challenges that the aluminium can faces. She urged everyone in the room to maintain a collaborative mindset and reminded them that together, can makers are more powerful than the sustainability challenges they encounter.
In Ball’s Climate Transition Plan, the company has laid out its plan for achieving 55% of carbon reductions from Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions by 2030, including increasing the recycling content of cans to 85%, enabled by the implementation of financially viable and effective collection schemes. The conversations had and fostered at the Summit support that aluminum is a winning substrate – and Ball is all in on it.