We endeavor to create value for the communities where we operate by:
- providing stable, fair-paying jobs;
- procuring goods and services from local suppliers when possible;
- paying income and other taxes;
- and investing in community initiatives.
We strive to create value that fosters thriving communities.
By building stronger communities, we hope to gain support from local stakeholders to continue operating in accordance with local agreements and regulations. Our Values, Ethics and Compliance Program, Human Rights Policy and our comprehensive social management system, called SP360, guide our value-creation efforts with local and regional stakeholders.
These are also the foundation of our efforts to provide our employees with the opportunity for a better quality of life and well-being, professional development opportunities and a safe work environment.
We are raising our social performance standards.
Our Social Performance Management Unit (SPMU) evolved into our Social (Center of Excellence) CoE in 2022. This CoE supports the implementation and integration of our social management system across the business. It is also responsible for developing and overseeing our social management standards and providing regional and location-specific support for related activities.
Our social management system helps us:
- facilitate effective engagement with communities;
- manage our social risks; and
- maintain our social license to operate at all Alcoa-managed locations.
It considers our unique portfolio of operations, our resources, and our capacity while challenging us to keep pace with rapidly evolving international best practices and standards.
Our social management system is composed of four standards:
- Social Performance Management
- Indigenous and Land-Connected Peoples
- Cultural Heritage Management
- Human Rights Management
The system is aligned with international best practices and maps the standard requirements to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It is designed to meet the expectations of both our neighboring communities and international organizations, such as ASI and ICMM.
We aim to harness the full potential of our partnerships by providing sustainability guidance and oversight. These efforts include the following:
- Collaborative Compliance Program. Our teams work with our partners to create alignment around the compliance programs for the joint venture and develop plans to close any identified gaps. As part of the process, we also share our policies, procedures and best practices with our partners.
- Human Rights Risk Assessment. Our human rights risk assessment extends to our non-controlled joint ventures, and we work with them to address any identified gaps.
In addition to compliance and human rights, we take an active role in transferring our best practices in environment, health, safety and human resources to our non-controlled joint ventures. The level of involvement varies based on the maturity of processes and systems, as well as the identified risks of each operation. This can range from sharing our best practices and standards to temporarily assigning Alcoa experts to the joint venture. We also conduct risk assessments of various aspects of a joint venture when warranted.