The Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI) was launched at the end of 2012 by key players in the aluminium industry and is supported today by fourteen companies: Aleris, Amcor Flexibles, AMAG/Constantia Flexibles, Audi, Ball Corporation, BMW Group, Constellium, Hydro, Jaguar Land Rover, Nespresso, Novelis, Rexam, Rio Tinto Alcan, and Tetra Pak.

The aim of the ASI is to design a Standard that can be both a tool for responsible sourcing of aluminium, and a material stewardship collaborative framework to improve the overall sustainability performance of the entire value chain of aluminium-containing products.

The ASI Performance Standard aims to address sustainability issues relevant to the production of aluminium, from the extraction of bauxite to the producers of commercial and consumer goods, and the recycling of pre- and post- consumer aluminium scrap. The ASI Performance Standard is intended to define principles and criteria for the 11 sustainability aspects addressing Environmental, Social and Governance sustainability in the aluminium value chain. The Performance Standard is complemented by a Chain of Custody Standard to enable coherent and integrated linkage of information between the different stages of the aluminium value chain.

The ASI standard-setting process is based on public multi-stakeholder consultations and meetings of the ASI Standard Setting Group. The Standard Setting Group (SSG) is leading the development of the ASI Standard. With a balanced representation of industry and non-industry stakeholders (see here for members), the SSG meets periodically to review the various drafts of the Standard and comments received from the public consultations. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is coordinating the standard-setting process through its Global Business and Biodiversity Programme.

How to contribute
The Draft Standards and review forms are available in English, Bahasa Indonesia, French, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese and Spanish and can be downloaded from: http://aluminium-stewardship.org/asi-standard/asi-standard-download/.

These Drafts are still work in progress. For a number of criteria, the SSG is putting forward multiple options for consultation, and this public consultation is a great opportunity to gather more input on these different views. This public consultation period will be followed by a third meeting of the SSG (24-26 September 2014) to review and consider comments received. In September, the SSG will also assess if additional meetings will be needed to be able to issue a first version of the ASI Performance Standard.

All information about providing input to this public consultation is available from: http://aluminium-stewardship.org/asi-standard/asi-standard-download/.

For more information, please visit the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative web site (www.aluminium-stewardship.org) or contact Mr. Deviah Aiama (Deviah.Aiama[at]iucn.org), Programme Officer, Global Business and Biodiversity Programme, IUCN.