Aluminium Stewardship Initiative certifies Vedanta Aluminium for sustainable sourcing of raw materials

New Delhi: 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 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.

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.”