Local means responsibility
Aluminium is our business. We buy it, sell it, export it, extrude it, roll it, cut it, bend it, drill it, punch it, paint it, help our customers make great things out of it. And we do all this right here in New Zealand with our team of 500+ people. To do all these things requires a lot of energy. Consequently, we generate CO2 emissions.
As a responsible local business, we’re determined to manage our emissions downward through the application of scientific and technological based solutions.
Our approach
Our approach to sustainability rests on three key ideas:
- Reduce – we’ll minimise the amount of waste we create
- Reuse – we’ll look to use items more than once
- Recycle – we’ll turn as much as we can into new products
We are applying these ideas to our Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions.
Just for reference, Scope 1 emissions are carbon emissions we generate directly, such as the natural gas our forklifts use to move stock around our warehouse.
Scope 2 emissions are generated indirectly, on our behalf if you like. For example, our business is a big consumer of electricity, a large portion of which is generated from New Zealand’s network of hydroelectric power stations.
Scope 3 emissions are often referred to as downstream or upstream emissions. Mainfreight, for example, are our transport partner and move our products from our manufacturing hubs to our customers.
Introducing EPDs
An Environmental Product Declaration or ‘EPD’ is an independently verified and registered document that communicates transparent and comparable data about the life-cycle environmental impact of a product.
These documents are based on international standards and produced in accordance with ISO 14025 and EN 15604+A2:2019.
The Altus® NZ Ltd EPD is produced by think-step anz Ltd, endorsed by EPD Australasia, in accordance with the The International EPD® System programme.
In brief, EPDs measure the following over the life of the product:
- Its carbon footprint or global warming potential, be it fossil-based or biogenic
- Energy use, be it renewable or non-renewable
- Water consumption
- Waste generation
The Altus® Industrial Aluminium Carbon Declaration is a slimmed down report derived from the Altus® NZ Ltd EPD detailing the total emissions and emissions intensity of a particular product. It is designed to provide customers with information that will allow them to compare our product, and its supply chain, with like-for-like products, in order to make a sustainable decision.
Using low-carbon aluminium that is born here
100% of our extruded aluminium is sourced from the New Zealand Aluminium Smelter (NZAS), located on the Tiwai Peninsula in Southland, where some of the world’s greenest aluminium is produced.
NZAS produces a wide range of value-added products, including high-purity ingots, foundry alloys, and specialty billets made from low-carbon aluminium. As one of only two smelters in the world producing ultra-high-purity aluminium, NZAS is unique in using hydroelectric power from the Manapouri Hydro Station, ensuring a sustainable manufacturing process with a minimal environmental footprint.
For more than 50 years the Manapouri Hydro Station has been generating electricity 200m underground in Fiordland National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site. All of its 600+ megawatts of clean energy feeds directly into New Zealand’s Aluminium Smelter at Tiwai Point which is why the carbon footprint of aluminium produced at Tiwai is about four times lower than the global industry average.
Altus® Industrial Aluminium is committed to health, safety, and environmental excellence, operating under ISO 9001 standards and adhering to industry best practices. By combining sustainable sourcing with our expertise and state-of-the-art facilities, Altus® Industrial Aluminium delivers complete aluminium solutions to meet the diverse needs of businesses locally and internationally.
