Ball Corporation Announces New Sustainability Goals, Shares Vision to Achieve a Circular Economy for Aluminum Beverage Packaging

WESTMINSTER, Colo., June 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ball Corporation (NYSE: BLL), one of the world's leading suppliers of sustainable aluminum packaging and aerospace technologies, today announced 2030 sustainability goals focused on enhancing product stewardship and social impact to create value for stakeholders, together with a vision for how industry partners can collaborate to achieve a fully circular aluminum beverage packaging system.

Ball's new global sustainability goals, which will drive performance across the life cycle of its products, include a commitment to achieving net zero carbon emissions before 2050 and transitioning to 100% renewable electricity by 2030. The goals also include ensuring all aluminum is purchased from certified sustainable sources and converting 80% of Ball's global beverage can volumes to its lightweight STARcan designs.

Complementing the company's longstanding ESG programs, Ball is expanding its disclosure of existing D&I and social programs with specific 2025 goals for every region and business. For example, Ball Beverage Packaging South America has committed to increasing the proportion of non-white employees in new hires from 31% to 47%, and Ball Beverage Packaging EMEA plans to increase representation of women in manufacturing roles by achieving a 25% recruitment rate of women for these positions.

In addition to its sustainability goals, Ball also shared 'Toward A Perfect Circle,' an industry vision which sets out how, by working together, beverage brands, retailers, and aluminum beverage packaging manufacturers and their suppliers could make aluminum cans, bottles and cups – the world's most recycled beverage containers –surpass a 90% recycling rate from today's rate of 69% and increase the global average recycled content rate to as much as 85%. Today, recycled aluminum uses only 5% of the energy compared to using virgin material, and recycled cans have the potential to be back on the shelf in as little as 60 days.

To achieve this vision, Ball will drive multi-stakeholder action that includes developing a low-carbon roadmap for the aluminum beverage packaging sector. The company will also advocate for investment in infrastructure and technology to support a more effective and efficient recycling system in the regions where it operates. Ball will work with partners to publish this multi-region recycling roadmap and carbon pathway plan within the next year.  

"As a world-leading manufacturer of aluminum beverage packaging, Ball has a responsibility to our stakeholders and the planet to improve the environmental performance, social impact and economic returns of our business and take a leading role in driving industry-wide solutions to the climate crisis," said John A. Hayes, chairman and CEO of Ball. "Our customers are seeking low-carbon and truly circular packaging options as they work to fulfill net zero targets and meet growing consumer demand for sustainable products. Infinitely recyclable aluminum cans, cups and bottles are the solution. We look forward to further enhancing our products and developing an industry-wide circularity roadmap in collaboration with our partners."

Ball will be engaging with key stakeholders across the aluminum beverage packaging sector to develop and promote the best methods, policies and actions to achieve a fully circular aluminum beverage packaging system.

"Ball is playing an important role leading the sector towards a better world. Surpassing a 90% recycling rate and 85% in recycled content will require teamwork across the sector and can have a phenomenal impact for our planet. We are also thrilled to see commitments Ball made in their sustainability goals which also support a path toward net zero carbon. All these objectives are deeply aligned with our vision and will have all of our support to become a reality." – Felipe Baruque, Vice President, Global Procurement & Sustainability Packaging, Anheuser-Busch InBev

"As the world's largest recycler of aluminum, Novelis is proud to partner with Ball to advance a shared vision for sustainable aluminum beverage packaging and support their efforts to foster more long-term industry collaboration. Having recently announced our own ambitious sustainability targets to become a net carbon-neutral company by 2050 or sooner and reduce our carbon footprint 30 percent by 2026, we are committed to working together with Ball and other members of the value chain to continue to expand the use of lightweight, infinitely recyclable aluminum to achieve a more circular economy."  – Steve Fisher, CEO Novelis Inc.

"Today with our own 4.0 technologies, BeyondAlea^®, our aluminum recycling furnaces are already able obtain high metal yields with minimum energy in fully automated plants. As a leading designer and manufacturer of aluminum recycling technologies, we welcome Ball's circular ambitions and we are ready to support the industry towards the circularity transition towards 2030." – José Domingo Berasategui, Managing Director, GHI

"It's time for governments to lay the legal framework for effective collection and real recycling. The focus should be on quantity collected with the highest quality to easily enable circular systems – packaging with many lives – reusable and recyclable. The cumulative benefits from circular systems, like deposit return, mean less litter and carbon emissions; more valuable resources for local recyclers which means more jobs; and giving producers the opportunity to include large amounts of recycled content in their new packaging."  – Clarissa Moriawski, CEO and Co-founder, ReLoop

"TOMRA's technologies help to drive deposit return systems by making beverage container redemption easy for consumers, while reducing costs in a shared-mission to achieve more than 90% collection and superior material quality that enables used containers to be turned into new containers over and over again. With the right recycling policies, it is possible to achieve these high levels of circularity. We are pleased to work with Ball and partners across the industry toward greater sustainability in beverage packaging, now and in the future." – Chuck Riegle, Senior Vice President, Governmental Affairs & DRS Compliance, TOMRA Systems ASA

For more information about Ball's sustainability goals – including its commitment to product stewardship, climate leadership, diversity and inclusion and long-term economic value creation – please visit Ball's website.

About Ball Corporation
Ball Corporation supplies innovative, sustainable aluminum packaging solutions for beverage, personal care and household products customers, as well as aerospace and other technologies and services primarily for the U.S. government. Ball Corporation and its subsidiaries employ 21,500 people worldwide and reported 2020 net sales of $11.8 billion. For more information, visit www.ball.com, or connect with us on Facebook or Twitter.

Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains "forward-looking" statements concerning future events and financial performance. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "estimates," "believes," and similar expressions typically identify forward-looking statements, which are generally any statements other than statements of historical fact. Such statements are based on current expectations or views of the future and are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied. You should therefore not place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements and any such statements should be read in conjunction with, and qualified in their entirety by, the cautionary statements referenced below. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Key factors, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to be different are summarized in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Exhibit 99 in our Form 10-K, which are available on our website and at www.sec.gov. Additional factors that might affect: a) our packaging segments include product capacity, supply, and demand constraints and fluctuations and changes in consumption patterns; availability/cost of raw materials, equipment, and logistics; competitive packaging, pricing and substitution; changes in climate and weather; footprint adjustments and other manufacturing changes, including the startup of new facilities and lines; failure to achieve synergies, productivity improvements or cost reductions; unfavorable mandatory deposit or packaging laws; customer and supplier consolidation; power and supply chain interruptions; changes in major customer or supplier contracts or loss of a major customer or supplier; political instability and sanctions; currency controls; changes in foreign exchange or tax rates; and tariffs, trade actions, or other governmental actions, including business restrictions and shelter-in-place orders in any country or jurisdiction affecting goods produced by us or in our supply chain, including imported raw materials; b) our aerospace segment include funding, authorization, availability and returns of government and commercial contracts; and delays, extensions and technical uncertainties affecting segment contracts; c) the Company as a whole include those listed above plus: the extent to which sustainability-related opportunities arise and can be capitalized upon; changes in senior management, succession, and the ability to attract and retain skilled labor; regulatory action or issues including tax, environmental, health and workplace safety, including U.S. FDA and other actions or public concerns affecting products filled in our containers, or chemicals or substances used in raw materials or in the manufacturing process; technological developments and innovations; the ability to manage cyber threats; litigation; strikes; disease; pandemic; labor cost changes; rates of return on assets of the Company's defined benefit retirement plans; pension changes; uncertainties surrounding geopolitical events and governmental policies both in the U.S. and in other countries, including policies, orders, and actions related to COVID-19; reduced cash flow; interest rates affecting our debt; and successful or unsuccessful joint ventures, acquisitions and divestitures, and their effects on our operating results and business generally.

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SOURCE Ball Corporation