Navigating 2025: Sustaining momentum and driving change with ASI

14 January 2025

In a context of uncertainty and urgency

As we step into 2025, the world faces a complex landscape of political, geopolitical, and economic uncertainty. Shifting government priorities, potential trade tariffs, and a constantly changing regulatory landscape are creating challenges for global business operations and sustainability initiatives alike. These pressures are compounded by the ongoing climate crisis, with 2024 recorded as the hottest year in millennia.

While the challenges grow, some things remain constant, including the need to address the environmental impacts of industrial supply chains and the social injustices often borne by communities affected by global economic demands. ASI and its Members’ ongoing work toward the responsible production, sourcing, and stewardship of aluminium along the value chain remains critical but must adapt to the external realities to maintain relevance. In this context, ASI’s strategies for 2025 include:

1. 1. Launching the Standards Revision process
      In Q1, ASI will begin its third major cycle of Standards Revision that will ensure our standards and assurance remain robust and aligned with evolving industry and regulatory demands. The Revision process runs until 2027, and we encourage all ASI Members to actively contribute through public consultations and collaborate through ASI’s governance structures (e.g., working groups).
   2. Supporting Members through transition and structural challenges
      To ease the transition during the standards revision and address ongoing structural challenges in energy markets, ASI is offering optional CoC certification extensions and a temporary exemption process for GHG performance criteria. These measures acknowledge the dynamic contexts faced by Certified Members while supporting the evolution of ASI’s standards.
   3. Engaging with key regions and market segments for sectoral change
      Driving sectoral change requires engaging with key players and regions where ASI can have the greatest impact. To this end, ASI will focus on:
      • Engaging downstream Flat Rolled Product (FRP) consuming segments to build on the existing cohort of supplier entities with rolling mills, which now represent 45% of global FRP production certified against the ASI Performance Standard.
      • Deepening engagement in regions such as Guinea, Brazil, India, and Indonesia, where ASI can support meaningful improvements in sustainability performance and strengthen collaboration through the Indigenous Peoples Advisory Forum (IPAF).
      • Continuing to expand ASI’s engagement in China, which accounts for more than 55% of global aluminium production and consumption, to support whole-of-sector change.
   4. Enhancing data accessibility and transparency
      Data and transparency are critical to addressing aluminium’s horizon challenges and tracking sustainability progress. ASI will focus on:
      • Rolling out bespoke digital architecture and tools to elevate stakeholder engagement, beginning with elementAL 2.0, followed by the Certifications Dashboard 2.0 and educationAL 2.0.
      • Refining ASI’s GHG Method at both Entity and Product levels, developing a framework for carbon-related claims, and integrating these tools into elementAL 2.0 to centralise data on performance trends for oversight and analysis.
   5. Strengthening human rights and Indigenous-led initiatives
      ASI will continue to advance on its initiatives that supports social justice, including Indigenous-led Participatory Cumulative Impact Assessments (IPCIA) to ensure Indigenous leadership in project evaluations. We will implement an ISEAL-funded project that will help to secure the economic, social, and cultural rights of waste pickers – a vital component of the circular economy, and to empowering Indigenous communities through training programs that enhance their role in sustainable bauxite mining rehabilitation.
   6. Fostering dialogue on sustainability at the CRU World Aluminium Summit
      In May, ASI will again co-host the 30th World Aluminium Summit with CRU and the International Aluminium Institute (IAI) in London. This event will provide a platform for industry leaders to discuss challenges, share innovative solutions, and strengthen partnerships for sustainability.

Celebrating a decade of progress in 2025 

This year marks ASI’s 10th anniversary. Over the past decade, thanks to the support of, and collaboration with our Members, we’ve grown from an ambitious idea into a global leader in promoting sustainable practices across the aluminium value chain. In the months to come, we will reflect on this milestone in our communications as we take stock of our progress, and look ahead to continuing to shape a more sustainable aluminium value chain together.

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