New Delhi; 15 May 2024: Vedanta Aluminium, India’s largest producer of aluminium, today announced that it has been successfully certified against the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative’s Chain of Custody Standard V2 (2022). The company has achieved this certification for its smelter in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at its plant in Jharsuguda, Odisha. The company’s operations in Jharsuguda, comprising of an annual smelting capacity of 1.8 million tonnes, make it the world’s largest aluminium plant.
Vedanta Aluminium has also previously achieved the ASI Performance Standard Certification for the manufacture and supply of primary aluminium products at its SEZ-based plant at Jharsuguda, and also at BALCO, a unit of Vedanta Aluminium based in Korba, Chhattisgarh.
The Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI) is a global non-profit standards setting and certification organisation that seeks to drive a sector-wide transformation within the aluminium industry. ASI’s Standards apply throughout the supply chain, from bauxite mining to downstream sectors that use aluminium in their products, and are a highly-regarded indicator of sustainable operations worldwide.
A Chain of Custody (CoC) is a system that can be used to support the traceability of materials and associated claims through a supply chain. The ASI CoC Standard V2 sets out requirements for the creation of a Chain of Custody for material that is produced and processed through the value chain into diverse downstream sectors. The implementation of ASI’s CoC Standard links verified practices at successive steps of the supply chain – certified under the ASI Performance Standard – to the materials produced by ASI Certified Entities. The independent, third-party audit ahead of the certification of Vedanta Aluminium’s smelter was carried out by CETIZION Verifica.
Sharing the significance of the certification, Mr. John Slaven, CEO, Vedanta Aluminium, said, “We welcome the Chain of Custody Certification for our SEZ-based operations in Jharsuguda, the first in India to achieve this mark of operational excellence. Following on the ASI Performance Standard Certifications for our plants in Jharsuguda and BALCO, it comes as a significant reiteration of our commitment to undertaking responsible operations. At Vedanta Aluminium, we are focused on integrating and encouraging sustainable practices within every stage of the aluminium value chain, and through this effort, fully explore the limitless potential of the ‘Metal of the Future’ in building a greener tomorrow.”
Dr. Fiona Solomon, CEO, Aluminium Stewardship Initiative, said, “We congratulate Vedanta Limited (Aluminium Business) on achieving Certification against ASI CoC Standard V2 at their Jharsuguda Smelter. The certification demonstrates Vedanta’s efforts towards implementing responsible sourcing practices and is complementary to their Performance Standard (V2) Certification, which provides a pathway for continuous improvement of their sustainability performance.”
Leading the transformation of the global aluminium industry, Vedanta Aluminium has committed to achieving Net Zero by 2050. It has rolled out a two-fold strategy towards this goal, reducing its carbon footprint by increasing operational excellence and increasing the quantum of renewables in its energy mix, while also offsetting its carbon footprint through extensive afforestation efforts. Its products have also been verified as sustainably produced by Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) International.
Vedanta Aluminium, a business of Vedanta Limited, is India’s largest producer of aluminium, manufacturing more than half of India’s aluminium i.e., 2.37 million tonnes in FY24. It is a leader in value-added aluminium products that find critical applications in key industries. Vedanta Aluminium ranks 1st in the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment 2023 world rankings for the aluminium industry, a reflection of its leading sustainable development practices. With its world-class aluminium smelters, alumina refinery and power plants in India, the company fulfils its mission of spurring emerging applications of aluminium as the ‘Metal of the Future’ for a greener tomorrow.
