Why ASI Chain of Custody?
Learn how ASI's Chain of Custody approach is driving the uptake of responsible practices in aluminium supply chains
Four key points about ASI’s Chain of Custody Standard and model
A Chain of Custody is a system that can be used to support responsible sourcing commitments and associated claims through their supply chain.
It does this by providing a clear, documented method for tracking Chain of Custody certified materials through each stage of the supply chain.
For aluminium, ASI’s Chain of Custody Standard takes a mass balance approach.
This allows mixing, under material accounting controls, and puts the focus on connecting the supply chain practices of the entities in the chain, not on atoms in the material.
A requirement of ASI’s Chain of Custody Standard is to have the Performance Standard Certification as a foundation – through each step of the supply chain.
This is because the existence of a chain of custody system alone does not specify the characteristics or the conditions under which materials or products are produced.
In this way, CoC becomes the link from company practices to their products. Under ASI’s comprehensive certification program, this link starts with bauxite or recycled aluminium, and can be continued right through each step of the supply chain to end users. In this way, responsible production is linked to responsible sourcing.
ASI members are responding to a growing expectation that the entire aluminium value chain becomes certified.
The most common drivers for uptake of ASI Chain of Custody Certification are to implement responsible sourcing and to meet customer or supplier demands.
We collect annual data on inputs and outputs of ASI bauxite, alumina and aluminium under our Chain of Custody program, and publish this each year in a global mass flow model. This visualises the uptake and flow of ASI CoC material over time.
How ASI Chain of Custody adds value
ASI Chain of Custody (CoC) Certification is what turns responsible aluminium production into responsible aluminium sourcing. By linking ASI Performance Standard-certified practices with a robust mass balance material accounting system, CoC supports responsible sourcing programmes that create incentives for suppliers to adopt responsible practices, while enabling structured supply chain due diligence and risk mitigation.
At a company level, CoC Certification provides access to sustainability-related data, strengthens transparency, and enables credible assurance to customers and other stakeholders that responsible business practices are applied consistently as material moves through the value chain. This enhances reputation and market access, helps meet growing stakeholder expectations for supply chain assurance, and embeds responsible sourcing as a practical and value-adding part of business operations.
At a sector level, ASI Chain of Custody provides a common, scalable framework that supports consistency, comparability and credibility across global aluminium supply chains. ASI annually tracks the flow of CoC material across key stages of the value chain — from bauxite mining and alumina refining through aluminium smelting, re-melting and recycling, casthouses, and post-casthouse manufacturing. By expressing these flows in terms of aluminium content, ASI can visualise uptake over time, demonstrate collective progress, and strengthen confidence in aluminium as a responsibly sourced material in response to evolving regulatory, market and societal expectations.
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