Independent Assurance
Information provided in our sustainability reporting is subject to internal reviews and, for selected content, external assurance. We engaged an external third party to provide limited assurance of selected metrics. To review the latest Report of Independent Accountants and Management Assertion documents please visit our Downloads page.
Since 2004, we have obtained third party reviews for Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions. A formal assurance process for these GHG emissions was conducted for the first time in 2012. In 2013, we added water and waste data to the assurance scope and energy data in 2014, and Scope 3 GHG emissions in 2017.
Normalization Approach
Since we published our first biennial sustainability report in 2008, Ball Corporation has reported environmental data in absolute and normalized terms. Absolute data provides an overview on the overall environmental impacts, while normalized data enables comparability of data over time.
In our different businesses, we produce a variety of products. Within each business, we use a normalization factor that adequately represents the nature of the business and the way it operates. This allows for meaningful comparisons over time and for effective benchmarking of our manufacturing plants.
Business/Product Group and corresponding Normalization Factor:
- Global Beverage Packaging -- per unit of production
- Ball Aerocan - Impact Extrusion -- per unit of production
- Ball Aeroscan - Slug -- per weight of product sold
- Ball Corporation -- intensity index based on the above factors (see explanation below)
We strive to be as transparent as possible and will continue to report absolute and normalized data. We normalize metrics to align with business decision-making and to allow clearer communication of performance to stakeholders, enabling them to evaluate our performance in meaningful ways. This approach also aligns well with our Drive for 10 vision by providing flexibility for future business changes, as we expand into new products and capabilities.
Intensity Index
The business- and product group-specific normalization factors are also used to calculate a consolidated intensity index (II) for Ball Corporation for environmental metrics (see http://www.ball.com/data-center ). The II accounts not only for overall changes in production over a period, but also for changes in production mix between business segments. It is set at 100 for a reference year, which typically aligns with our five year reporting window.
Intensity Index = (100*KPI total)/((P1*P1x)+(P2*P2x)+(P3*P3x)+(P4*P4x) where: KPI total = total input (e.g. energy) or output (e.g. waste) in target year.
- P1 = number of beverage cans produced (Global Beverage Packaging)
- P2 = number of extruded aluminum containers produced (Ball Aerocan – Impact Extrusion)
- P3 = pounds of aluminum slugs shipped (Ball Aerocan – Slugs)
- P1x, P2x, P3x, P4x = weighting factors (input/output per normalization factor) of each business in base year
The index and related factors are reviewed and – if required – adjusted annually.
Normalization Per Net Sales
A common practice in sustainability reporting is the normalization per revenues or sales. Metals are among the top three cost components at Ball. They are subject to fluctuations in price and availability attributable to a number of factors, including general economic conditions, commodity price fluctuations, and the demand by other industries. Thus, metal prices can significantly influence our revenues and as a consequence the normalized sustainability performance in either direction.
A Look Back
In our 2008 and 2010 corporate sustainability reports, we initially normalized corporate environmental data on a consistent “per 1,000 units of production” basis. As long as our businesses and their product portfolios did not change significantly, this approach adequately described the relative performance improvements.
However, because our businesses and the products they manufacture change over time, which has led to various inconsistencies between the performance metric (such as electricity) and the normalization factor (unit of production). For example, we sold our PET business in 2009. That business produced vast amounts of units (bottles, preforms), while using an insignificant amount of natural gas. In 2010, we bought plants that manufacture aluminum slugs. The slug process is more complex than plastic bottle production, produces fewer units and uses significantly more natural gas per unit of production.
In June of 2018, Ball and Platinum Equity announced an agreement to form a tinplate steel food & aerosol container joint venture, to be named Ball Metalpack, and the deal was completed on July 31, 2018. As of this date the Metalpack assets are no longer under the operational control of Ball and are therefore outside the scope of Ball’s environmental performance reporting requirement. In 2019 Ball divested its Chinese beverage packaging operations, which included four beverage can manufacturing facilities.
More recently, during the third quarter of 2022, Ball completed the sale of its Russian beverage packaging business. As a result of this sale, Ball’s Russian beverage packaging operations, composed of three manufacturing facilities and one office facility, were removed from Ball’s organizational boundary for the current reporting year. To support comparable GHG reporting, the Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions from Ball’s Russian beverage packaging business operations were removed from historic GHG reporting (2010 - onwards). To ensure information and comparisons are reliable and meaningful over time, and to allow stakeholders to perform consistent trend analyses of our sustainability performance over multiple years, all 2010-2022 sustainability data are reflective of Ball’s 2022 sale of its Russian beverage packaging operations.
As a result, using different normalization factors for different businesses and product groups allows us to provide meaningful data aligned with how our businesses report data internally, and allows our stakeholders to adequately assess the progress we have made in our operations.
Reporting Boundaries
Unless otherwise stated, we are reporting sustainability metrics globally covering facilities where Ball has operational control, which includes owned and leased manufacturing facilities, major administrative offices, external warehouses and research and development facilities. Operations that are outside of these criteria such as joint venture locations where Ball does not have full authority to introduce and implement its operating policies have not been accounted for.
On June 30, 2016, Ball announced the completion of its acquisition of Rexam PLC and required divestitures, which resulted in significant changes to the company’s manufacturing footprint. Specifically, Ball added 41 manufacturing plants from legacy Rexam to our portfolio and divested 12 legacy Ball plants.
Since 2017, Ball sold its steel food and steel aerosol business in 2018 and 2019, respectively and sold its Chinese beverage can assets in late 2019.
To ensure information and comparisons are reliable and meaningful over time, and to allow stakeholders to perform consistent trend analysis of our sustainability performance over multiple years, Ball performed an extensive effort during the nine months following the close of the acquisition. We collected monthly sustainability data for all legacy Rexam facilities in line with Ball’s indicator definitions for all years back to 2010. This approach is consistent with the reporting principles set out by the GRI Standards, and guidance from the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard developed by the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.
Therefore, all sustainability data published after May 2017 covering calendar years 2010-2022 is reflective of Ball’s company footprint post-close of the Rexam acquisition and post divestitures. Ball’s operational control-based reporting boundary for the 2010-2023 scope includes all active facilities, including those acquired during the Rexam acquisition, as well as all facilities that have been closed and fully ceased operations.
Ball determined it no longer had operational control over one of its joint ventures in 2023. The impact to Scope 3 GHG emissions, Category 15 was an increase of approximately 75%, to Scope 2 GHG emissions (market-based) was a decrease of approximately 16%, and to each of the other impacted reported metrics was a decrease of less than 7%, and the total Scope 1, 2, 3 GHG emissions inventory decreased approximately 1%.
All facilities that were previously under Ball’s operational control and divested as part of the acquisition process, and other facilities that have been sold since 2010 are not included in Ball’s reporting boundary. This approach allows Ball and our stakeholders to analyze sustainability performance trends, to set meaningful goals, and to report progress against these goals.