Thanks to Sustainablebusiness.com for running this piece on: Alcoa Receiving Cradle to Cradle Certification. Alcoa is the first Aluminium company to win this certification. Are they the first aluminum company to have an ecolabel?

Here’s some background on Cradle 2 Cradle:

C2C’s standard is reviewed every two years, it covers many parts of the life cycle, though does not appear to cover mining / extraction. This is interesting given one would think much of the life cycle impact of aluminium would come from extracting the bauxite needed to make it.

Small nit: we note from their website that Alcoa is committed to the ICMM guidelines and reports to GRI. It would have been great to see C2C referenced in tandem with Alcoa’s commitment to these reporting and CSR standards.

C2C is not third party verified, instead it relies on the entities awarded the ecolabel to do their own audits annually. It is run by MBDC (McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry).

According to their website, MBDC is a global sustainability consulting and product certification firm founded in 1995 by world-renowned architect William McDonough and chemist Dr. Michael Braungart.

Congratulations to MBDC and Alcoa!