Aluminium’s Contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals

This report explores the aluminium industry’s current and potential contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are an urgent call to action and global partnership that addresses a range of long-term interlinked societal, environmental and economic issues – from poverty to economic growth to climate change. The original framework of the SDGs intended to bring a focus to global nations’ sustainable development efforts. We now see increased use in the business community, including the aluminium sector, to encourage active engagement and discussions and to demonstrate contribution and commitment to global sustainable development efforts.

The report provides a qualitative analysis of the relative impact of aluminium on the achievement of each of the 17 SDGs based on information from aluminium-producing companies, regional aluminium associations, desktop research and analysis of publicly available documents, to provide a global overview of activities and contributions from the industry in recent years. 

Case studies of recent sustainability initiatives in the aluminium sector feature in the report, along with highlights of aluminium’s sustainability credentials in applications (e.g., consumer, civic, industrial).