The company's second annual sustainability report shows an increase in the recycled content of its products from 33% to 39% one year after announcing its target of achieving an 80% recycled content by 2020.
The report, which received an A rating from the Global Reporting Initiative (the world's most widely used framework for sustainability reporting) also recorded a 19% reduction in energy intensity, an 11% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and an 18% improvement towards reducing landfill to zero.
Chief executive Phil Maartens says that sustainability is driving the company's business strategy and that a growing number of people want to buy products that lower their carbon footprint.
"By dramatically increasing the amount of recycled content in our aluminium sheet and applying innovation to our product development, we enable consumers to make sensible, environmentally sustainable purchasing choices," adds Maartens.
Novelis is investing in new technologies and facilities to process a broader array of aluminium scrap.
In the past three years, the company has announced investments of approximately 810kt of increased global recycling capacity in Germany, Korea and Brazil and has strengthened its recycling collection systems.
Having withdrawn from the Evermore Project (a partnership initiative with Alcoa), Novelis has set up an independent beverage can procurement organisation in North America.
The company recently set up the Novelis Sustainability Council, which includes ecological luminary Jonathan Porritt as a council member.