Aluminium and its low-carbon environmental impact
Limiting the environmental impact of your main materials is a core responsibility of any company, especially considering the EU Green Deal revolution. That is why Reynaers Aluminium focuses on sustainability, during the production process as well as during the lifecycle of our aluminium solutions.
What is the EU Green Deal?
The EU Green Deal is the European Union’s strategy to make Europe climate-neutral by 2050. The framework aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, boost clean energy, and promote circular economy principles across industries, including the construction sector.
To reduce the environmental footprint of the building industry, there are two revolutionary waves ongoing. Next to an increased focus on renovation, circularity is the main priority. The aim of the game is to reduce material usage, waste and embodied carbon, which accounts for 30% of a building’s emissions.
As prescribed by the EU Green Deal, at least 50% of components used in the construction sector should be low carbon (recycled or manufactured with clean energy) by 2030. Next, the embodied carbon of these building components should be cut by 50% by 2030, compared to 1990 figures.
The aluminium used in windows, doors and façade accounts for only 3% of the total carbon footprint of a building. When looking at the bigger picture: it is important, but no so important... Yet to achieve these stringent targets that have been set, Reynaers Aluminium is motivated to do its share of the work.
The material impact of aluminium
To obtain pure aluminium, aluminium oxide is melted during an electrolytic process - the Hall-Héroult process. This process is by far the main driver behind embodied carbon emissions of aluminium. By using clean energy (whether it is from hydro, nuclear, wind or solar energy) for the electrolytic process, we can produce low-carbon primary aluminium.
One way to lower the embodied carbon of aluminium even further is by adding recycled content to the mix. However, let’s look at the bigger picture. Aluminium is an outstanding material: its long lifespan of over 50 years and its high recyclability rate (95%) make recycled aluminium a rare resource to come by. In fact, while the European demand for aluminium is high, only 36% of demand can be covered by recycled content.
The most impactful way to lower the embodied CO2 of aluminium is in “the optimal blend”. This is a fair share of recycled content mixed with new aluminium produced with clean energy. This combination is what is called low-carbon aluminium.
Our approach to low-carbon sourcing
Today, already 77% of our aluminium portfolio is low-carbon, which is in line with the EU Green Deal. At Reynaers Aluminium, the average carbon footprint of our aluminium profiles in 2024 is 4.13 kg CO2e/kg aluminium (billet + extrusion), a -20% difference to our base year 2019. We plan to further reduce it to 2.81 by 2030 (-46% vs. 2019), which is also in line with the EU Green Deal.
How will we achieve this? Over the past years, as part of a comprehensive purchasing strategy, we have engaged with the right suppliers to decarbonize our aluminium sourcing by 2030. And we have already made significant progress. With a strong commitment and a thorough decade-long industrial plan, we are confident the upcoming years will further confirm the trend. All to make your future and ours a little bit brighter, one step at a time.
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